21 August 2004	Saturday	04 Rajab 1425

LAHORE, Aug 20: The Punjab government has appointed 34 ex-servicemen in the province to physically verify implementation of schemes for providing the missing facilities in schools under the Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme.

The Punjab Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) will collect the monitoring and evaluation reports about implementation of schemes through education department's field staff and the respective district governments. The PMIU will counter-check these reports and send a consolidated report to the provincial government.

The Punjab government has thus created two tiers of monitoring and evaluation to apprise itself of the exact situation with regard to the implementation of schemes, said PMIU deputy director (monitoring and evaluation) Khurram Khan.

Speaking at a discussion forum on the reforms agenda at PMIU offices on Friday, Mr Khan said the government had given Rs147 million to each district in the province to provide the missing facilities in schools.

Having distributed Rs5 billion all over the province, the government had decided to release the second tranche of funds next month on the basis of funds' utilization this year, he said.

As the education department field staff was not fully trained, the PMIU was also working on their capacity-building besides providing them vehicles to monitor the implementation of schemes, he said.

Answering a question, Mr Khan said the PMIU had received reports that standardized furniture had been purchased for schools at different prices. Answering another question, he said that a majority of districts in the northern Punjab were not fully cooperative, while the districts in southern Punjab were fully cooperating with the PMIU.

TEACHERS' TRAINING: After the abortive exercise of 90,000 teachers' training by the University of Education that cost Rs197 million, the Punjab government has appointed Dr Rukhsana Zia as director of the programme for serving teachers' training at the Directorate of Staff Development.

Answering a question, Mr Khan said chief minister's advisor on teacher training Sadia Shahzad Chaudhry was no more looking after serving teachers' training. He said the PMIU was also consuming a lot of time in developing modules for effective teachers' training.

Answering a question, he said reports had been submitted to the Punjab government about teachers' training by the University of Education, and the officials concerned would be made accountable.

SCHOOL COUNCILS: Mr Khan said that school councils were being constituted in six districts to encourage greater community participation in the management of education.

He said two NGOs, the National Rural Support Programme and the Punjab Rural Support Programme, would help impart training to the school councils to enable them to take over school improvement functions independently.

He said a tripartite agreement between the education department, district governments and the NGOs was being made for the assignment.

The forum also discussed distribution of free textbooks, stipends for girl students in 15 selected districts, re-structuring of the Punjab Education Foundation, teachers' recruitment and awareness campaign.