LAHORE, Aug 30: Punjab Education Minister Imran Masood has said the government is working on a plan to reshuffle principals of all colleges on the basis of their performance.
Speaking at the prize-distribution ceremony for BA, BSc annual examination for 2004 at the PU New Campus on Monday, the minister pledged that the government would greatly encourage those principals who had shown good results. Similarly, he said, those failing to come up to the government's expectations would be given a wake-up call.
The minister said the government had already transferred all 34 executive district officers of education and appointed new EDOs to ensure achievement of targets. He said the government was running the three-year Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme at a cost of Rs22 billion, but most of the EDOs were not responding to this programme. "This led to the transfer of all the EDOs," he said.
He said it was encouraging that girl students were continuously showing better results, and this pattern was visible in all districts. He, however, lauded the efforts of the boy who secured third position in the examination.
He said the low pass percentage in the examination was the outcome of strict monitoring at examination centres. The minister said the government was also focusing on gender issues, especially female education, because only literate mothers could produce a literate nation.
Mr Masood said the government had upgraded all middle schools in the province as high schools. With the upgrade, he said, the need for more teachers had emerged and the government was now in the process of recruiting around 30,000 teachers on a contract and 2,500 lecturers through the Punjab Public Service Commission.
He also called for strengthening of old institutions, besides provision of quality but cheap education to the talented poor students. The minister also asked the PU VC to arrange his meeting with the parents of top position holders, teachers and principals at his chamber.
He said the government would honour all these people. He also directed the vice-chancellor to give Rs200,000 instead of Rs100,000 to the examination branch staff, who conducted and compiled the results.
