RAWALPINDI, May 17: The on going textbook crisis will continue for another couple of weeks, Federal Education Minister Zobaida Jalal said on Saturday.

Talking to newsmen after the convocation of the Federal Government Postgraduate College for Women, Kashmir Road, she said faulty statistics of the education planners were responsible for the three-month-long crisis as the statistics were not up-to-date.

About the common perception that the shortage was a result of the demand of books published by the Punjab Textbook Board in other provinces, Ms Jalal said this was true only in the case of Balochistan. “But, the practice had been continuing for years and there wasn’t anything new about it this year which could have led to such a big crisis.”

Asked about a revision in the examination system for classes 9th and 10th, she said the scheme introduced sometimes ago was technically flawed as it had failed to reduce the burden on the students. “However, now all the eight subjects have been divided into two halves which would hopefully suit the students.”

In reply to a question about difficulties encountered in getting admission to federal government schools, she said the actual problem was that of space, adding that the existing infrastructure would have to be rehabilitated to accommodate the growing number of students.

Earlier, speaking at the convocation, Ms Jalal said 5 million children of school-going age in the country were at present out of schools. The minister admitted that the government alone could not attain the target of quality education; for this both private and public sectors would have to work in unison.

She said the government was committed to providing computer laboratories to as many schools as possible. “Our plan is to equip each high school with 15 computers and man them with two computer teachers,” she said.

She said the education ministry had a collaboration with the information technology ministry for improving the access of school-going children to computers.

She said while the government was brining reforms in the education sector, it laid focus on women’s education, for which special allocation would be planned in the next budget.

As many as 888 students were awarded BA degrees; 229 received BSc degrees and 171 got master degrees in English and Urdu.

Medals were given to students for their outstanding performance in the Punjab University and the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary examinations.