RAWALPINDI, May 2: Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood on Monday said recruitment would be made on 34,000 vacant posts of teachers and other staff. All these appointments would be made on contract system which was a success, the minister told reporters after attending the 34th convocation of Government Postgraduate College for Women, Sixth Road.

He said the Punjab government had taken a number of steps to increase literacy rate in the province. An amount of Rs950 million has been kept for providing stipends to female students in the backward areas. This is meant to encourage parents to send their daughters to schools and prevent drop-outs, he said.

Similarly, about Rs650 million is being spent on providing free books to students upto class fifth.

When questioned about the controversy over establishing Aga Khan Education Board in the Punjab, the provincial minister said any such step could be taken only after a unanimous decision of the assembly and approval by the provincial cabinet. All the nine existing education boards in the province are functioning under the Constitution. Unless there is an amendment to the Constitution, no private board could be established.

But he thought the establishment of the private education board would bring improvement in the education system and praised the social services of Aga Khan Foundation.

Earlier, speaking as chief guest at the convocation, the provincial minister said the recent steps taken by the government had increased school enrolment by 0.9 million in the province. There were nine million children on rolls of class one to 10 in schools. Of them, about four million would quit schools before reaching class five. This excessive drop-out had created a crisis-like situation but none bothered to do anything about it, he said.

To check this trend, the government put education on top of its priorities. A two-pronged strategy was adopted — how to stop this drop-out and also how to enhance enrolment. For this purpose, about 1,000 new schools were established in such backward areas where no education facilities existed before, the minister said.

Education upto class five was made free and also free-of- cost books are being provided. This year free books were distributed among six million children. In order to increase female enrolment, stipend programme was initiated offering each girl student Rs200 per month in the backward areas, he said.

Mr Masood said equal attention was being paid to higher education. Universities have been given freedom to take important decisions. Special attention is being paid to research and development in the institutions of higher learning, he added. Similarly, some new disciplines are being opened in the universities to expand employment opportunities to graduating students.

The education minister highly appreciated the performance of the Sixth Road College saying it was one of the biggest as well as the best colleges in the Punjab. This college, he said, had produced professionals who were serving on top positions in the country. Earlier, the college principal, Munaza Rehman presented the annual performance report of the college.