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Fatyyana stresses

need to double literacy

rate by century end

LAHORE: Provincial Education Minister Riaz Fatyyana on Sunday said that the political will coupled with administrative commitment can bring about revolutionary changes in the national literacy and educational standards.

Inaugurating the two-week training course for the newly-appointed 34 Additional Deputy Commissioners (Literacy Movement) here, he said, there is a political will for promoting literacy and improving the educational standards in the Punjab which is also reflected by the allocation of Rs. 20.70 billion for the education in the budget this year which is 22 percent more than that of previous year.

He said, "the government plans to involve the community and non-governmental organizations in its drive for the promotion of literacy and education in the society. School management committees will be formed with due representation of the respective community which will make all purchases, repairs and construction of the said schools instead of executing these jobs through contractors."

He said the government was recruiting graduates in its literacy movement at the level of Union Councils who will work as "Promotors" with the Additional Deputy Commissioners (LM). He also directed the district education officers to extend every possible help to the Literacy movement to make this plan a grand success.

Fatyyana said that the self-finance scheme in the colleges without affecting the open merit seats, is an effort to generate more resources for the educational institutions so that they could allocate reasonable amounts for research work. He added that the Engineering University has allocated Rs. one lakh for its research project this year for the first time in its history.

He maintained that the Education Department has strictly directed the schools to end physical punishments and create student friendly environment in the schools for encouraging the attendance of children in the schools.

He said that first time in the history of the country, the fees for science and technical subjects have been fixed lower than the arts subjects to promote scientific and technological education in the country. He was of the view that the low fees of the arts subjects were an intentional effort of the British Raj to produce more clerks and this trend was to be reversed if we were to enter into the next century with honour and pride.

He said the Punjab government has also started charging Rs. five as education tax which will be used for imparting education to deserving students free of cost, covering the cost of books, uniform and tuition fee. The department has also doubled the scholarships for science, he added.

Government is also working to set up universities in the private sector which will be authorized to issue degrees in the later stage. The syllabus of the technical education was not amended since 1978 due to which the students of these institutions were denied employment in the private sector. "We changed the syllabus and introduced nine more technologies in the course to make them compatible with the latest technologies," Fatyyana added.

He said that the libraries used to be kept open from 8.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. during which the people are usually busy in their work but now the timings have been changed and now these will remain open from 2.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m., due to which the libraries are full of readers now.

He said the Education Department was also plannning to set up a training institute on the pattern of Nipa and separate directorates for elementary and secondary schools had been set up to improve the efficiency in this sector. "The Department has also started the appreciation and punishment of the teachers on the basis of their annual results," he said.

He said that the department had overcome the problem of boundary walls, roofs on the class rooms and lack of furniture in the schools with the help of international donor agencies.

He deplored that Pakistan was at the bottom of the nine most populated countries of the world. He added that promotion of education in the society could help in controlling the sectarianism, linguistic conflicts and "barbarism" which are posing serious threat to the democracy and our national development and progress.

The Chief Secretary of Punjab, Javaid Qureshi, who was the cheif guest on this occasion said that the efficiency of the Additional Deputy Commissioners (Literacy Movement) would be monitored and it would have long lasting impact on their career. "It will offer great opportunities to them for getting recognition at national and international level", he added.

He said the selection of ADCs was made on the basis of their talent and they should be proud of their new postings for this first priority task of the Punjab government.

Education Secretary Tasneem Noorani said that the newly recruited ADCs will also be sent abroad on study tours and will have more exposure.

The ceremony was also addressed by Jacinthe A. Desmarais, Resident Programme Officer of Unicef.-APP