LAHORE, July 25: All provinces want to regain the administrative control of public sector colleges from district governments. Sources said that the demand was made by all four education ministers at the Inter-Province Committee of Education Ministers here on Monday. The meeting was presided over by Federal Education Minister Javaid Ashraf Qazi and attended by Punjab’s Imran Masood, NWFP’s Fazal Ali Haqqani, Balochistan’s Maulana Abdul Wahid and Sindhi’s Dr Hameeda Khuro besides federal and provincial secretaries.

The sources said that two ministers also demanded repatriation of schools from district governments. However, Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi held out an assurance to the provincial ministers that he would arrange their meeting with President Pervez Musharraf in this respect.

The sources said that Mr Qazi told them that from now onwards funds to provinces would be allocated on their performance in the education sector. He also asked the provinces to submit the budget of their education reforms programmes by December. The federal minister directed the ministers to take measures to ensure that NGOs working in the education sector should collaborate their efforts with the government. It would help the government to have a check on them, he said.

The sources said absence of school and college teachers of the public sector during examinations was also discussed. The federal minister said that the issue would resolve automatically once holding of examinations started in summer vacation.