Provincial Minister for Schools Education Murad Raas has said that double shift will be introduced in 500 selected primary schools of 20 districts from March 2019 under the Insaf School Programme which would help them achieving the goal of 100 percent enrollment. Chairing a meeting at his office on Thursday, the Minister also asked all educational institutes to submit their viable proposals for implementing short-term, mid-term and long-term plans under the "New Deal for Punjab Programme." Also, the meeting reviewed educational reforms agenda and decided that information and communication technology should be efficiently utilized to solve the problems of the people at the earliest.

Speaking on the occasion, Murad said students will be imparted education in Urdu language in primary schools from next academic year whereas English will be taught as a subject. The meeting also pondered over the academic year from 1st of March. "Double shift will be introduced in 500 selected primary schools of 20 districts from March 2019. This is a part of Insaf School Program to help achieving the goal of 100 percent enrollment," he added.

The meeting appreciated the proposal of setting up health rooms which will be started in 1700 selected schools of the province. It also discussed the proposal of speedy installation of water filtration plants in government schools of different districts and start of three sports-periods in schools every week for improving health of students.

During the deliberations, the Minister proposed that state-of-the-art "Education Tower" should be constructed in Lahore to deal with diverse departmental issues under one roof. Murad was also briefed about the computerized software application for dealing with posting transfer of teachers. The Minister said that teachers-friendly policy will be introduced to save the teachers from different socio-economic difficulties in their career.

Secretary Schools Zafar Iqbal, Special Secretary (Operations) Jahanzaib Khan, Chairman and PCTB MD besides others also attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019