School Education Punjab Secretary Abdul Jabbar Shaheen has said the government has launched an 'adopt a school programme' to make the "Parho Punjab Barho Punjab" campaign successful where School Education Department officials will adopt two schools for two months other than performing their own routine duties.
The secretary told the Business Recorder that the purpose behind initiating the idea of launching this programme was to ensure provision of basic standards of education in 40,000 schools in the Punjab where head-teachers were absent. "It was anticipated that all these 40,000 schools will be covered in a short span of eight months and government will know about the problems faced by these schools. It will be easy for the government to evolve a policy which will be beneficial for increasing the ratio of literacy in the province."
He claimed that in the past two months 10,000 or one fourth schools had been covered across Punjab. "Tests, conducted by independent education experts, show a significant improvement not only in availability of missing facilities but also quality of education in these schools."
He said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during the launch of the "Parho Punjab Barho Punjab" had acknowledged efforts and commitment by School Education Department officials and announced that he himself and all the Cabinet ministers would also participate in this campaign by adopting a school to help achieve the required outcomes. "Currently, Education Minister Rana Mashood and a few others have adopted schools while it is expected that a large number of members of the Provincial Assemblies and bureaucrats will adopt a school after the summer break." The secretary has himself adopted a public school in GOR-II Lahore where he regularly visits, passionately teaching and making sure that the school serves as a benchmark for other SED officials. The school has recently recorded intake of 43 students that also include students from private schools situated in same area. The school has willingly initiated a summer camp although teachers are not paid extra for it and are ready to stretch further to improve quality of education in the school.