Daily Times

GUJRANWALA: The government is spending Rs 54 billion annually on the promotion of education in the province, said Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood on Saturday.

Addressing a prize distribution ceremony at Islamia College Gujranwala, said the government wants to increase literacy rate and provide quality education to the young generation.

He said the federal government was preparing a uniform education policy for the all four provinces and had increased grants for universities and research centres.

“Female literacy is the most important in order to achieve a targeted overall literacy rate in Pakistan,” he said, adding that some parents feel it unnecessary to educate their daughters. He regretted that 90 out of each 100 girls do not get education after matriculation and asked the parents to change their behaviour.

“The Education Sector Reforms programme of the government is running successfully and now 1.7 million students have been enrolled in Punjab which is an international record. The Punjab government is also providing better education facilities to 16 million students of 63,000 schools in Punjab,” he said.

Mr Masood advised the students to get education according to the market demand, which would help end unemployment in Punjab.

He said new classrooms would be built and new furniture would be given to the Islamia College Gujranwala to meet the need of increasing number of students. He said new post-graduate subjects would also be introduced in the college soon.

The minister distributed degrees among the passed students of MA Urdu, MA Political Science and BSc and also distributed prizes among the position holders of Intermediate exams.

He gave pride of performance certificate to the college Principal, Professor Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, while gave shields to the professors of the college and the Chairman Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Gujranwala Colonel (r) Masood-ul-Haq.