SANGHAR, April 28: The provincial government has sanctioned Rs500 million for the upgradation of 1,200 primary schools to middle level in the province. This was stated by provincial Education Minister Irfanullah Marwat at the inaugural ceremony of Bahria Foundation College here on Wednesday.

Expressing concern over declining standard of education in the province, the minister said that despite the fact that there were 40,000 primary schools in the province, the dropout ratio was very high. He said the 10-year-long ban on recruitment had created a shortage of teaching staff. Mr Marwat added that the ban had now been lifted and a new faculty would be recruited on merit.

About the falling education standard, the minister said that out of 19,000 candidates who had applied for the post of lecturers, only 4,000 passed the test and about 25 per cent of them got below ten per cent marks. He said that most of these candidates had master's degree while some had done master's in two subjects.

Mr Marwat said that free books were being provided to the students up to class X. He promised that Rs500,000 would be provided to Bahria College and a well-furnished library equipped with audio and visual facilities would be established at the college with the help of British Council.

On the occasion, District Nazim Roshan Din Junejo demanded that Bahria College should take over control of Mono-technical College, Tando Adam. It may be mentioned here that the Bahria College building was built about 12 years ago and according to plans a women polytechnic college was to function in it.

However, polytechnic college could not start classes and the door and windows had been taken away by unidentified people. The building was renovated by the Bahria Foundation to open their college.

The ceremony was attended by Managing Director of Bahria Foundation Vice-Admiral Irfan Ahmed, Director Education Commander A.U. Khan, District Nazim Roshan Din Junejo and Commander Shafaat Rasool besides local people.