SIALKOT, April 30: The Punjab government is considering a proposal for introducing a one-year compulsory technical education for students of government schools after the middle examination.

This was stated by Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood while speaking at a seminar on the "promotion of technical education" organized by the University of Management and Technology here on Friday.

He said the proposal would soon be got approved by the provincial cabinet. This step of the provincial government would help students stand on their feet by earning through the skills they would learn during their compulsory technical education.

The minister said the present government had brought some revolutionary changes in the education system which would prove beneficial to the students. Providing quality technical education to students was the need of the hour for this would also help eliminate unemployment in the country, he said. For this purpose, the government would also encourage the private sector. He said the provincial government was spending Rs43 billion for the promotion of education in the province.

However, he said that some 40,000 schools out of 63,000 were still without their boundary walls. Murray College Principal Prof Riaz Sadiq, Prof Mrs Aqeela Hamid, Dr Rashid Kausar and Dr Altaf Khan also spoke on the occasion.