November 14, 2006	Tuesday	Shawwal 21, 1427

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LAHORE, Nov 13: Punjab chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on Monday said that the second phase of the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme (PESRP) had been started with an amount of Rs6 billion.

Presiding over a meeting to review the pace of the programme, the chief minister said the money would be spent on the provision of missing facilities in all colleges of the province. The second phase is aimed at provision of infrastructure and competent teachers to the colleges.

He said the government had decided to transfer all administrative and financial powers to the college administration. It would improve the performance of colleges as well as betterment of staff. At least 4,000 new teachers would also be recruited by June 2007.

The chief minister said the process of provision of missing facilities to 64,000 schools in the province was continuing under the first phase. A project management unit set up for the monitoring of the project would be made responsible for the implementation of college reforms programme.

This programme, he said, would be given practical shape under the direct monitoring of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. The college sector was being strengthened for providing better educational facilities to hundreds and thousands of new students who had enrolled in schools as a result of the CM education reform programme.

The promotion of education was of key importance for the socio-economic development of the country. Therefore, he said the scope of education sector reform programme had been extended to 10 years.

He said that a monthly stipend of Rs200 was being given to girl students in the backward districts due to which there had been a revolutionary change in the attitude towards education of female students.

Besides educational facilities, the chief minister said that free textbooks were also being provided to the girl and male students. He said the success of PESRP had been acknowledged at the world level and international organisations had also appreciated proper utilisation of funds in Punjab.

He said that thousands of teachers had been imparted modern training in the province under the teachers training programme for improving standard of education. He said that all schools in the province would be upgraded to high school level under a phased programme.

The meeting also reviewed performance of all districts with regard to educational plan in the light of reports compiled by the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team. The chief minister directed district nazims, DCOs, EDOs (education) and DMOs to make education reforms programme more effective.