Punjab Minister for Excise & Taxation, Finance and Law Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman has said that in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Rs.2 billion has been reserved for current fiscal year as the Punjab government considers education as a tool to development and a record funds have been provided for school and higher education. He said that fashion & design, paintings and fine arts competitions help to polish talent of the youth. He said that Punjab government is utilizing all out resources for the promotion of education specially in the field of technical education and an amount and huge amount is being utilized for the promotion of education sector.
While talking to a delegation of students and teachers of a private Institute of Fashion and Design, Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said that due to practical measures of Punjab Chief Minister, the enrollment of students in government schools had been enhanced to 11.273 million. He said that Head of DFID Richard Montgomery has maintained that textbooks have been provided in schools for the first time before the start of new academic session which is a splendid achievement of Punjab government and an example of good governance. He said that British educationist Sir Michael Barber while lauding the efforts of Punjab government, said that the attendance of teachers in schools has considerably improved due to implementation of the reforms programme being jointly implemented by Punjab government and DFID and the rate of attendance of teachers in schools of the Punjab has reached up to the level of the British schools.
Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman said that cooperation and grants are also provided to educational institutions for the promotion of designing fine arts and other job oriented education besides extracurricular activities. He said that for the purpose of promotion of quality education, more than one lakh 40 thousand teachers have been recruited on merit and in a highly transparent manner during the last five years while this process is also continuing during the current year. He said that the number of teachers in schools is being rationalized with the ratio of students. He said that Punjab Education Foundation is playing a vital role in promotion of education and in this way the total number of schools under the control of the Foundation has reached 3600 where 15 lakh boy and girl students are studying.