LAHORE, Feb 7: Provincial Education Minister Imran Masood has said he is ignorant of the recent Punjab University Economics department's degree scandal in which the results of 70 candidates of session 2002 were found tampered.

"I have no knowledge of any PU degree scandal and, if there is any, give me the details," the minister responded to a question while talking to Dawn at the 10th annual convocation of the Ali Institute of Education here on Saturday.

When asked that a certain section of press had published reports in this regard and the PU had also sacked five examination branch officials responsible for tampering with the results, he reacted: "You better tell me the name of the newspapers in which the stories were published."

Answering another question, Mr Masood said the government was in no hurry to appoint a PU pro-vice chancellor as the seat was redundant in nature.

The minister refused to accept the reports that girl students in some of the districts were not being paid stipend under the Punjab Sector Education Reform Package (PSERP). He claimed that the programme was launched only in 14 districts and the government had been paying the stipend since October last.

He said establishing the Gujrat University was a must because there was not a single in the Gujranwala division. This year, he said, the government would focus on higher education.

Speaking at the convocation, the minister said teachers were the most important segment of society, playing vital role in nation building. He said the government would take all measures to restore teachers' respect in society.

He said the teachers' training was ignored in the past and there had been no concept of in-service training either. The government was focusing on teacher training for which the University of Education was established.

To improve the education standards, especially at government schools, around 13,000 graduate schoolteachers had been recruited and they would be given regular training to keep abreast with modern principles and techniques, he said.

Expressing concern over high drop-out rate of schoolchildren, the minister said around four million children reportedly ran away from schools annually at the primary level. The government would provide financial support to the poor parents to refrain them from forcing their children into child labour.

He said the government would also remove grey areas in the sector and devise a comprehensive policy to tackle the problem of postings and transfers of teachers. He added that the government was recruiting another badge of schoolteachers in six months.Earlier, AIE chairman Syed Babar Ali presented the address of welcome and director Hassan Shahnawaz Zaidi read out the annual report of the institute.

The minister also gave away certificates to the BEd (elementary education) trainees of 2003.