LAHORE, April 14: The Punjab Workers Welfare Board has decided to increase the admission quota of workers' children in its schools and colleges from 60 per cent to 80 per cent and award a Rs350 per month stipend to the children of the deceased workers.

The decisions were taken in a meeting of the board held here with Punjab Labour Secretary Shahnawaz Badar in the chair. Secretary Iftikhar Hussain Shah said that some 17,000 students were studying in 26 schools and colleges being run by the board in the province.

He said the board had also decided to establish a model English medium school with O Level education facility for workers' children on Raiwind Road here under a directive from Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Rasool. Children topping in examinations in different schools of the board would be admitted to the model school and provided free boarding facilities, he said.

The board, he said, had also decided to bear total educational expenses of the talented children of the workers in schools and colleges other than its own. He said the board would also provide gas facility at the I.I Chundrigar Labour Colony in Jaranwala, Faisalabad, and funds for the construction of a 100-bed hospital at Gujrat besides building two workers welfare schools at Jaranwala. It had also been decided to raise the boundary walls of the girls' schools being run by the board, he added.