LAHORE: The Punjab School Education Department (SED) on Friday constituted a five-member committee to oversee the functioning of the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF), according to a notification available with Dawn.

The committee includes the PEF managing director (MD) as convener and the SED special secretary (planning) secretary while members include the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board MD, the SED additional secretary (general) and district education authority chief executive officer of Lahore.

The committee will oversee the functioning of the PEF under the provision of the PEF Act of 2004 and would also oversee the directions of the chief minister given on the summary initiated by the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team.

A spokesperson for the PEF said that Rs1.70 billion were released as the fee of March, April and May. He said they would also release Rs650 million of the current month to all schools till June 15.

TEXTBOOKS: The Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit has distributed free textbooks to public schools in various tehsils for academic session 2020-21.

According to a notification, the annual transportation of free textbooks to 128 tehsil warehouses has been completed and their onward distribution to school and students is the responsibility of the district education authorities.

The SED secretary directed the staff to take necessary steps for the distribution of free textbooks to schools from tehsil warehouses and allowed opening of administrative offices on Monday and Tuesday with minimum staff. The same activity may be carried out class-wise with distribution of time and social distancing for distribution of books.

It also stated that all SOPs issued by the SED and the Health Department from time to time in the context of Covid-19 pandemic be strictly followed.

UPGRADED: The SED on Friday upgraded 45 elementary schools of Lahore to high schools.

According to a notification, the upgraded schools include 17 schools from Tehsil City, two from Cantonment, 12 from Model Town, eight from Raiwind, and six from Shalimar Town.

It further states that the senior teachers of these schools were also made headmasters of the schools.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2020