LAHORE: The Punjab government launched on Monday School Health and Nutrition programme in 1,700 schools of the province.

Punjab ministers Dr Murad Raas and Dr Yasmin Rashid inaugurated the programme at the Government Central Model School, Lower Mall, where Mr Raas said that the programme would provide education to students and take care of their nutrition to improve health.

He said the government had launched an android phone application with the help of the Punjab Information Technology Board and the Secondary Healthcare Commission to monitor the programme.

The programme will cater to students of 1,700 schools of the nine districts - Lahore, Bhakkar, Jhang, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Mianwali and Sargodha.

The programme will later also be extended to other districts of the province in the second phase.

“We are launching the programme to monitor the nutrition of the students and also want to know about their need. Under the programme medical checkup of the students will also be conducted periodically,” he said.

The minister said health supervisors would help maintain cleanliness of the school and also monitor the health of the students for ensuring a healthy Pakistan.

He said education and health departments would improve the health and education of the students.

He said the government was committed to providing all basic facilities to the students of the schools at every level.

Mr Raas said they were working to provide quality education, nutrition and health facility to the students. “We will also ensure that school canteens provide fresh and good quality food on subsidized rates to the students,” he said.

He said they had announced provision of clean water to the students by establishing 100 water filtration plants at schools under “The New Deal for Punjab” program.

He said they would also establish state of the art 100 libraries and 200 science laboratories in the schools of the province.Mr Raas said they were also reviewing transfer/ posting policy of the schoolteachers and would make it teacher’s friendly.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018