Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan has said that poverty, ignorance and unemployment cannot be eliminated from the countries of our region without promoting knowledge based economy. He said that the steps like setting up of Lahore Knowledge Park and computer labs in six thousand high schools are aimed at to put the country on the road to progress and prosperity through promotion of education and corporate sector.
He expressed these views while addressing the inaugural session of South Asian Libraries at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), here today. Chairman HEC Punjab Dr. Nizam-ud-Din, Vice Chancellor LUMS University Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Director Library LUMS Dr. Ramazan and a large number of representatives of various libraries were also present on the occasion.
The Provincial Minister said that Education Department Punjab is running biggest educational system of the world in which more than 52 thousand schools, three lakh 21 thousand teachers and more than one crore students are getting education. He said that Education Department has also launched a comprehensive website for monitoring this system in which data of 52695 schools can be checked.
Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan said that Lahore Knowledge Park is a unique project of Education Department which is spreading over 800 acres land. He said that five international universities will set up their campuses in Knowledge Park. He said that Chief Minister Punjab has announced to allocate 21 billion rupees for this project.
The Provincial Minister said that libraries are the best source of providing books and love with knowledge for the people of any country. He said that Punjab government will send summary to the Chief Minister Punjab in the light of the recommendations of the participants of the conference regarding service structure of libraries. Later, Education Minister visited library of LUMS University and appreciated facilities being provided to the students.