LAHORE, Aug 3: Punjab education minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that a curriculum authority will be established within few days in line with the legislation passed by the Punjab Assembly.

According to a handout issued here on Friday, the minister said the government was providing modern educational facilities to children and 80,000 children moved to government schools from private schools. He said 108,000 schools, including 60,000 public schools, were imparting education to children in Punjab. After new recruitment of teachers after Eidul Fitr, the minister said that government schools would be showing 1-29 teacher-student ratio.

The minister said Rs4 billion would be spent on necessary facilities in primary and middle schools and Rs5.2 million on upgrading girls middle schools in Punjab. He said the government was working to achieve 88 per cent literacy rate till 2015 to meet the Millennium Development Goals. He said 262,500 students of 4-15 years of age were seeking education at non-formal basic education schools.

The minister said private educational institutions were doing a valuable service in the field of education and the government was cooperating with them. He said the Punjab Education Foundation was providing grant and scholarships to private educational institutions and students.