LAHORE: Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas has spelled out 16 steps the government has taken for the betterment of school education during its 16 months.

At a press conference where Punjab Minister for Information Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan was also present, he said the e-transfer policy of schoolteachers was successfully implemented and it prevented massive corruption in transfers and postings. Another project, he said, was Insaf Afternoon Program under which around 21,000 students had been brought back to the schools.

He said two other projects -- Insaf Primary Schools and Insaf Mobile Schools -- were being implemented to provide education to the street children.

Mr Raas said the HRMIS online portal was launched and data of all the schoolteachers were available on it. He claimed that all these steps were taken during their 16 months in government and no step of the previous government was repeated.

He said efforts were being made to do away with the problems in the department once and for all. He said the Punjab Sports Strategy was launched in the schools and it would be implemented in 2020.

The minister said measures were taken to upgrade Daanish Schools’ Centre of Excellence and day scholar were allowed to get admissions there. He said steps were being taken to bring Teacher’s Licence Act to the assembly to issue licences to the teachers just as lawyers and other professionals have.

He said Urdu as medium of instruction at the primary level was introduced in public schools from the next academic session beginning in March and English would be taught as a subject. “Urdu is our national language and widely spoken and written in the country and Urdu medium of instruction will end rote learning,” he said.

He said more than 100 model schools were being established in 11 districts of the province featuring fully-equipped classrooms, auditoriums and grounds. He said the model schools project would be completed by March 2020.

“Students will be provided every facility at model schools and these will include 2,000 new classrooms, 1,000 science labs, 400 libraries and 1,000 IT labs and other facilities,” he said.

The minister said they were working to develop syllabus for the students and it would be completed soon. He claimed that 2.3 million trees were planted in the schools under the Green Pakistan Campaign. Around 30,000 trees were planted in Daanish schools.

He said under the rationalisation policy, the problem of shortage of teachers was addressed.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2019