LAHORE, Aug 16: Punjab government’s Commission for Compulsory and Free Education has sped up consultations to prepare two reports for preparation of a bill and consequent legislation to implement Constitution’s Article 25-A, which offers free and compulsory education to children aged 5 to 16.

The commission headed by Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan (retired) has plans to give a report about preparation of laws for ensuring compulsory and free education as well as about registration of birth and death certificates by Sept 15.

Justice Khan in a meeting with media representatives at Children’s Library Complex on Thursday said no scheme could be fruitful until and unless the exact data about enormity of a problem was available. He said there were seven million out of school children in Punjab.

He said the commission would prepare a report that what education was and what type of laws were needed to ensurecompulsory and free education for all children. He said the second report would be prepared till Oct 15.

The commission has constituted five committees -- Committee for Resource Allocation, Committee for School Education, Committee for Consultation with Stakeholders and Public Hearings, Committee on Private Education and Committee for Legal Matters and Consultation with Legal Communities. The committees have started consultations with stakeholders according to terms of reference given to them.

Justice Khan, who is also heading the Committee for Consultation with Stakeholders and Public Hearings, told media persons that the commission was consulting all political parties’ leaders to get the legislation through the incumbent Punjab Assembly otherwise this issue would be delayed for an indefinite period. He said the commission would consider province’s economic conditions. The chairman said the commission was proposing a permanent school education commission to achieve the given targets.

Justice Khan said the school education department was working with a budget of Rs188 billion -- 85 per cent of which was spent on payment of salaries and non-development expenditures and 15 per cent on development projects.

Punjab school education department secretary Aslam Kamboh said the budget allocated for Daanish Schools was not part of school education department’s development budget. “This budget comes from the finance department directly,” he added.

Justice Khan said the commission would ensure that children of 5 to 16 years of age go to neighbourhood schools, and make arrangements for those doing paid work to join schools after work. He said the commission would define if “free education” means just tuition fee and books or it also includes stationary, uniform and transportation facilities. He said the commission would lay more stress on girls’ education.

MNA Saira Afzal Tarar also spoke on the occasion. Commission secretary Ali Hussain Malik and member Prof Dr Syed Owais were also present.