LAHORE, Aug 27: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said on Monday the government would announce a lucrative package for teachers next month, increasing their salaries and basic pay scales along with other necessary facilities.

He was addressing a prize distribution ceremony arranged by the Care Foundation for position-holders in matriculation examination at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

The chief minister said the desired objectives in education could not be achieved without restoring the dignity and respect of teachers and ensuring their due status in society.

The government had brought about basic changes in the service structure of teachers, he said, adding that the government had increased budget for educational budget.

He announced a Rs50 million grant for the Care Foundation, which would have legal cover so that no future government could discontinue it.

The chief minister said 100 public colleges were being made model colleges under the private-public partnership, which would help the government improve the standard of education. He said nationalisation of private educational institutions by the former governments had destroyed them but the present government had encouraged private education institutions in accordance with the educational vision of President General Pervez Musharraf.

The Care Foundation is providing quality education to 114,000 children of low-income strata of society in 182 schools.

Pervaiz Elahi said the educational reforms programme had proved successful and 2.2 million children had enrolled in educational institutions due to provision of free education and textbooks up to meatric and educational scholarships to girl students.

He said there was a growing trend among people of rural areas to send their children to school. The target of the government is to enrol 10 million more children in educational institutions.