September 17, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 16, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 16: The World Bank has accused the former Punjab government of misusing its financial aid by spending it on personal projection instead of improving the education sector.

The allegation came in a meeting of a team of World Bank Mission for Education with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif here on Tuesday.

Officials quoted World Bank representative Tahseen Syed as saying the former government had spent a huge amount on publicity campaign. Stressing that the amount should have been spent on the uplift of education sector only, he said monitoring was essential to avoid misuse of funds.

The mission reportedly assured cooperation of the World Bank to improve the education sector.

Tahseen Syed was further quoted as having said that the bank was also desirous of improving the standard of textbooks, setting up an autonomous education foundation and formation of a commission for examination.

The chief minister urged the World Bank representatives to extend cooperation to the Punjab government for the betterment of the education sector. He detailed the steps his government was taking to promote the sector.

According to a handout, the chief minister said a record amount of Rs30 billion had been allocated in the current budget for the uplift of the sector with focus on strengthening primary and middle school system, apportioning Rs4 billion for provision of basic facilities to them.

He said the education sector would further be improved with the help of World Bank Mission for Education. Sharif said he thought that the aim of progress and prosperity could not be materialised without development of the education sector and thus arrangements were made for admission of a maximum number of children in schools under the Universal Enrollment Scheme.

He said in order to remove disparity between private and public schools, modern labs were being set up in all government schools. An endowment fund had also been established while brilliant students were being awarded cash prizes. He said free pick-and-drop facility would also be extended to both male and female students.

Earlier, World Bank Task Team Chief Officer Sofia Shakeel and South Asia Education Sector Manager Ummat Dar submitted proposals for the uplift of education sector.