Punjab government promoting education

LAHORE: In order to promote education, the Punjab government has taken a number of revolutionary steps. Its untiring efforts have resulted in a remarkable increase in allocation for education in the recently announced budget.

The government introduced the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund for providing scholarships to talented and needy students. Under this programme, 150,000 scholarships worth Rs7.5 billion have been awarded to bright and deserving students who otherwise don’t have enough means to bear their educational expenses. The Punjab Educational Endowment Fund is the largest scholarship endowment fund in the history of the country with a cost of Rs16 billion.

Additionally, the government also introduced the Education Voucher Scheme with the aim to benefit children belonging to less affluent and underprivileged areas. In order to spread the use of computers among college and university-level students and to bring about a technological revolution, the government initiated the Youth Laptop Programme. Likewise, the Teacher Induction Programme has also been launched by the government for imparting better education to students.

In today’s competitive world, education is a necessity — therefore, it is by default among the top most priorities of the government, and the PML-N leadership is making strenuous efforts for its provision at every doorstep. If Shahbaz Sharif’s dream of development in the province’s education sector materialises, then the day isn’t far when Pakistan will also be ranked among the countries with the highest literacy rates. It is hoped that the government will remain sincere in its efforts to provide education to every child and the dream of an educated Punjab will certainly become a reality sooner than later.

Syed Ali Qasim

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2016.

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