LAHORE, July 31: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) on Tuesday launched New School Programme (NSP) expansion plan (Phase-IV) in 22 selected districts for providing free education to 67,800 deserving students through 226 partner schools.

PEF chairman Muhammad Anwar signed an agreement with heads of 226 schools’ heads for partnership at a ceremony at Children’s Library Complex on Tuesday. The 226 schools’ heads took part in the ceremony and signed partnership agreement with the PEF for imparting free education to the needy and deserving children in their areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Anwar said that now a total of 107,800 deserving students would benefit from this programme in the province. Under the NSP, he said the PEF besides providing monthly fee would also provides textbooks to students so that they could continue their education up to matriculation level.

He said the NSP had proved very successful in eradicating illiteracy and ignorance from the economically deprived remote hinterlands, where schools were often not set up for want of resources or the parents could not send their children to schools at far off places due to lack of resources. He said that this programme would especially be beneficial for the girls, who would enjoy free schooling near their homes.

Earlier, PEF NSP department head Hassan Javed explained various features of the expansion phase.