LAHORE, Feb 17: Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood has said private schools are free to affiliate themselves with the Aga Khan Board, a private institution established under an ordinance.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) at the Lahore BISE offices on Thursday. He, however, clarified that government schools and colleges would remain affiliated with boards of intermediate and secondary education.

Mian Imran said the BISEs and universities would continue to hold examinations for students of government schools and colleges. He said the department had linked promotion of teachers to in-service training. Under this policy, every teacher would have to join training courses for further promotion.

He claimed that in-service training had a great significance for raising the standard of education. The department had introduced new modules for teachers' training, he added.

The government had also introduced a new system to evaluate the performance of government and private schools. Under this programme, the elementary and middle standard examinations were being conducted by the city district governments.

Mr Masood said the government was determined to provide maximum facilities to students. With a view to achieving this objective, steps had been taken, including establishment of IBCC regional office at Lahore for the issuance of equivalence certificate to foreign Pakistani students and attestation of their educational certificates.

He said the IBCC regional office had been set up to facilitate students. He stressed on making procedures for the issuance of equivalence certificates easy. IBCC chairman Comdr (retired) Shamshad Husain and BISE chairman Prof Dr Zakariya Butt also spoke on the occasion.