LAHORE: Former Punjab chief minister Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo has lauded the prime minister for rightly identifying illiteracy as one of the basic problems obstructing the national development and urged Imran Khan to opt for the programme he (Mr Wattoo) had given in mid 90s to promote literacy.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Mr Wattoo said the prime minister genuinely pointed out that widespread illiteracy because of 25 million out-of-school children was among the main hurdles in the way of the country’s progress.

He said that with good intention and planning the menace could be overcome.

Wattoo said that he, as chief executive of the province, had worked on the issue and got enacted the Compulsory Primary Education Act 1994 for ensuring speedy promotion of literacy in Punjab.

Denying reports that he had not got approved rules and regulations under the act for smooth implementation of the same, ex-CM claimed the law had been implemented by his regime and that it also helped eradicate the menace of child labour from the province at that time.

Official record, however, reveals that the rules and regulation were neither framed under the 1994 Act nor the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014, passed in line with the Constitution’s Article 25-A, repealed the 1994 law. Thus the province could not yet harvest benefits of the enactment.

Mr Wattoo insisted that it were the succeeding governments which did not implement the law, otherwise it would have ensured 100 percent literacy in Punjab.

He also claimed that he had ordered recruitment of graduates as primary school teachers instead of matriculates for introducing English as a compulsory subject from the very start of the education process and ensuring that the students of state-run schools didn’t lag behind those of the private sector schools who would learn English from Class-I.

He said that he had also formed Promotion of Education Committees at school level with respective headmasters as their heads and empowered them to take administrative and financial decisions for the purpose, and also created posts of additional deputy commissioner (literacy) for improving standards of education.

He regretted that Shahbaz Sharif “spoiled” the committees later by announcing that heads of these bodies would be elected through polls. The idea was opposed by the teaching community and thus the whole concept crashed to the ground.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018