LAHORE, May 29: The education department plans to seek funds for launching new projects from Punjab’s annual development programme (ADP) for the next fiscal year.

The proposed projects include establishment of a university of education, Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science, schools of biological and mathematical sciences, a central science library and scholarships for higher education and science and technology.

The provincial education minister is said to have directed the secretary to also seek funds to conduct the annual academic audit of the universities if they show their inability to finance it.

The minister also directed him to seek funds for development of the university of education over and above the regular budget of the Directorate of Staff Development. The university, he believes, would need funds to engage experts to frame new curricula for BA, B.Ed, BS.Ed, M.Ed, and diploma courses as well as to establish an examination branch besides requiring funds for miscellaneous and unforeseen expenses.

Similarly, the minister has directed his department to demand funds for improvement of colleges of education and for Elementary Teachers.

The education department is also demanding Rs100 million each for foreign scholarships in science and technology and internal scholarships for higher education. It also demands Rs50 million for scholarships for internal science and technology Ph.D.

The department also needs funds for the implementation of its continuous assessment system introduced this year. It also seeks funds to develop primary school teaching kits for primary teachers, and to execute its plans to give a set of supplementary books to all class-IV students free of cost.

Sources claimed that the minister had also directed the secretary to demand finances to set up more resource centres to balance the number of centres for male and female teachers.

It is learnt that the department has also decided to seek Rs100 million instead of

this year’s Rs80 million allocation to give incentives to good teachers.