Literacy Day: Govt taking steps to promote education: CM

Shahbaz says comprehensive plan underway to achieve 100 per cent literacy.

LAHORE: The government is taking revolutionary steps to promote education, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

In his message on the World Literacy Day, the chief minister said that special attention was being paid to increase the literacy rate and improve the standard of education. “A comprehensive programme is being implemented for achieving the target of 100 per cent literacy,” he said.

The chief minister said that nations could only develop if they paid attention to education. “Therefore, promotion of education is the government’s top priority. Billions of rupees have been provided to the education sector. A target has been fixed to enroll every child in school by 2018,” he said.

The chief minister said that a programme was being implemented for imparting quality education to all students. “The Punjab government has made an investment of billions of rupees in education sector during the last seven years.

Danish schools have been set up in backward areas of the province for providing quality education to the children of the poorest of the poor,” he said.

He said that the Danish school system had been operating successfully for the past five years. “Free education, boarding and lodging facilities are being provided to the children of low-income families. Education is essential for progress and prosperity of the country,” he said.

He said that the government had established the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund. “The fund currently stands at Rs15 billion.

More than 100,000 students are getting education with help from the fund,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2015.