LAHORE, March 6: The government intended to grant autonomy to more schools and colleges, particularly in the mofussil areas, to improve the standard of education in the Punjab, Governor Khalid Maqbool said on Wednesday.

He made the announcement during a visit to the Central Model High School Lower Mall and Rattigan Road, and Government College of Veterinary Sciences.

He also presided over a meeting of the Central Model School Lower Mall’s board of governors and expressed dissatisfaction over its performance despite autonomy.

The government planned to give autonomy to more institutions as people wanted to have top quality schools and colleges in their areas. The autonomy should be meaningful so that positive results could be achieved and used to improve the syllabi.

All autonomous institutions must have their own system for the better training of their teachers. They must attract their students towards learning languages, computer training, declamation contests and other co-curricular activities.

The governor said model schools would be introduced at tehsil level and only bright students would be admitted there on merit. The government intended to improve the standard of its schools so that the children of those who could not afford the fees of private schools, could also get quality education.

He said recruitment of teachers would soon be started and they would be given enhanced salaries and better pay scales. Those not performing well would be replaced by highly qualified teachers, he said.

The teachers of the Central Model High School agreed with the governor when he offered powers to its board of governor’s to fire inefficient teachers and pay higher salaries to those performing well.

Former caretaker prime minister Malik Meraj Khalid supported the school teachers saying they were giving the desired results. He said the school should be provided with the science and computer laboratories and other facilities.

The governor said all demands would be accepted and after that the government would like to ask about the improvement in the educational standard of the school.

He later inspected various sections of the school during which District Nazim Mian Amer mentioned the lack of space. While visiting the junior section the governor asked questions from two students of class two and presented them pens for giving right answers.

During the visit of the veterinary college, the governor sought opinion of the students and teachers about the problems being faced by the institution and said that it would be upgraded and given autonomy. He said every institution he visited in the past demanded funds but the government lacked resources. Improve the working of the college so that it could generate funds to cater to its needs.

About the protest by Jinnah Hospital doctors for increase in their salaries, the governor said the educated people should not adopt such methods.

Instead of protests they must seek a negotiated resolution of their problems as their strikes would affect patients.