The Punjab government is setting up girls' high school in each union council while 35,000 new classrooms will also be constructed in the government schools in all 36 districts of the province. Punjab Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan revealed this at a meeting attended by Punjab Assembly members and District Coordination Officer and Executive District Officers Education (EDOs) concerned on Saturday.
He said the massive financial intervention amounting to over Rs 56 billion was aimed at expediting the pace of infrastructural development by opening new girls' schools and adding 35,000 new classrooms along-with other development initiatives in all the 36 districts during the fiscal year 2016-17.
The Minister was briefed that 31 out of 57 declared endangered schools were being reconstructed in the first phase which would be completed in next two months. It was also revealed that Rs 1.3 million have been spent to provide books, notebooks, uniforms and scholarships to the children of brick kiln workers who have been enrolled in different schools.
Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan directed the officers concerned to strengthen cooperation among all wings of the Education Department both to achieve enrollment targets and effectively check the tendency of dropout which is crucial to ensure hundred percent literacy rate in all the districts. He also directed to ensure implementations of SOP to extend security cover to the educational institutions. To maximize the participatory role of the local community, new schools councils would be revitalized which would play their role to promote modern education in both rural and urban areas of the province, the Minister added.