Words out of Education Minister

Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood said “the issues of education were linked with the cultural issues as most parents in Pakistan didn’t send their children (both gender) to school due to cultural constraints. The government has taken numerous focused initiatives for the development of education sector. The Punjab Government has increased the annual education budget from Rs.34 billion to Rs. 54 billion which is 24 % of the total budget.”
He kept on saying that “The Punjab Government under Education Sector Reforms Programme (PSERP), initiated by the World Bank, has improved standard of education and literacy rate in the province. WB providing all facilities in the 63,000 public sector schools in the province and extended the three-year 100$ annually (interest-free credit for the Punjab Government is from the International Development Association (IDA) because of the success of the programme and regards revolutionary programme, “Hamara Khawab, Parha Likha Punjab” as the best in the world. WFP is the food aid arm of the United Nations helps feed about half a million female beneficiaries in Pakistan donated seven trucks to the Pakistan government to help monitor the activities and transport edible oil to schools. In Punjab, is providing assistance in 7 districts, helps girl up to class 5 in the programme receives a four-litre tin of edible oil for every month.”
Speaking about the schemes initiated by the Punjab government, he claimed “the Punjab government as the first to initiate a workable scheme for parents to allow their daughters to go to schools. The objective is to provide qualitative education to each and every child of the province without any discrimination. The formal and non-formal education and training especially for girls are the vehicles of empowerment. Women constitute 50 per cent of the total population in the country, and there would not be any development if half of the population were uneducated. The Punjab government has also stressed on the need to recruit female teachers for classes 1 to 5,
He went on to explain that the government intends to reach the disadvantaged population groups in rural and urban areas with emphasis on girls and women. He mentioned the government’s plans to provide free education up to matriculation. Thousands of regular girl students for achieving attendance levels of up to 80 per cent per month are receiving stipends of Rs200 per month as incentive on a quarterly basis, plus free text books up to Matric (to both gender) are reaching the students in a timely manner, and community involvement is showing encouraging results. The Punjab government pays the stipends to the district governments, which send them on to the girl students through postal money orders. The schemes have been highly successful and girl students who once ignored their classes are now attending regularly. School-based violence in general and gender-based violence in particular is also a major and growing threat to girls’ education. We has been striving our best to discourage school-based corporal punishment,” he added.
“Progress of a nation depends upon the participation and education of both genders. A number of programmes and projects that focuses on female literacy have been initiated both in private and public sectors. The ministry provides funds to NGOs that assist in bringing back youths who have left school or college and have spent most of their time in laboring for survival”, he concluded.