October 22, 2002	Tuesday	Sha’aban 15,1423

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RAWALPINDI, Oct 21: The Punjab government has decided to hold an audit of private schools in the province to develop a “proper system of teachers’ calibration”, sources said here on Monday.

The government, they said, planned to promote quality private education institutions and close down substandard ones by cancelling their registrations.

They said it had come to the notice of the government that barring a few, most of the private-sector education institutions, particularly primary schools, had under-qualified faculties and were fleecing students.

Talking about other reforms being introduced in the education system, they said the Punjab government had directed the quarters concerned to review the syllabus of higher and professional education.

They said a separate taskforce, headed by a vice-chancellor of a public-sector university, had been constituted for this purpose.

The sources said the government was reviewing plans for setting up a Rs1,200 million endowment funds for financing higher education of 2,000 needy, but outstanding students in the province.

They said the government had further decided to link departmental promotion and grant of increments to schoolteachers serving in public schools to completion of refresher courses.

The sources said the government was fully cognizant of the fact that certain elements might be averse to the idea of acquiring refresher training, but the difficult decision had to be taken with a view to improving the quality of education in the schools.

They said the purpose of setting up Lahore University of Education was to improve qualifications of the teachers.

Discussing the teachers’ promotion issue, the sources said, it had been decided that the annual increment of the teachers would not be stopped on completion of a particular grade.

The government, they said, had ordered revitalisation of the school councils to improve involvement of parents and community in running school affairs. These school councils would have representatives of teachers and nominees of the local union council Nazim.

The education institutions and examination boards, they said, had been asked to enhance co-curricular activities in their institutions to promote a balanced development of the personalities of the students.