LAHORE, Dec 19: Foundation for Rehabilitation and Education of Slow Children (Fresh) general secretary Ashba Kamran has criticised distribution of laptops among students and urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to focus on improving education system instead of political point scoring.

In a statement issued here on Monday, she said the Punjab government would spend Rs5 billion on providing 100,000 laptops to students, which would be a sheer wastage of public money.

Ms Kamran said the poor state of affairs at public schools was resulting into alarming dropouts and high ratio of failed students at primary and secondary level. She said that some 70 per cent students were dropping out at primary level annually, while almost 50 per cent students were failing in matriculation examinations.

She suggested that about five million students at about 1,000 public sector schools could benefit if the Punjab government spent Rs1 million on each school instead of purchasing 100,000 laptops at a price of Rs50,000 each.

She said the Punjab government had already wasted billions of rupees on Sasti Roti scheme that contributed little in overcoming inflation. Not only this, she said, the Punjab government's plan to automate education boards in Punjab had also proven as a complete failure.

Ms Kamran also lamented that a majority of computer labs at public schools were already locked due to non-availability of teaching staff.