LAHORE: Punjab School and Higher Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat has said that Punjab will increase the education development budget by a record 400pc, raising it from Rs32 billion to Rs110 billion and the higher education budget is also being increased by up to 500pc.

During a joint press conference with Information Minister Azma Bukhari on Thursday, Rana Sikandar Hayat announced that under special directives of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, the Punjab government would provide scholarships to 5,000 students from other provinces. He said the chief minister believed education should have no boundaries, yet the KP government was showing hostility to students by instructing their Higher Education Department not to cooperate with students.

“If Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cannot provide laptops and scholarships to its students, it should at least allow them to receive support from other provinces,” he remarked.

Comparing the PML-N government’s performance with that of the PTI, he said where the previous government launched 1,004 development schemes, they introduced 5,006 schemes with special reforms in the education department. He claimed the government adopted global standards and had shut the doors to corruption and favouritism.

He said the government implemented e-transfer policy, making permanent appointments of vice chancellors, education officers, principals, and school heads, cracking down on 1.1m fake enrollments, and achieved 2.6m Nadra-verified enrollments.

He claimed the government had reduced teacher shortage from 56,000 to 26,000. A commission was formed for Early Childhood Education, and 12,000 ECE classrooms were built where 450,000 children had been enrolled.

Mr Hayat said the School Meal Programme led to improvements in enrollment and student health rates. He said a classroom used to cost Rs5m, they built 400 rooms for Rs1.25m each saving taxpayers’ money.

The minister said that scholarship and laptop schemes helped transform the lives of thousands of youth. On the other hand, a historic crackdown against cheating mafias was carried out, and next year ‘practical exam mafia’ would be eliminated as well.

Mr Hayat also announced the provision of 26 coasters for girls’ colleges in urban areas.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2025