LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf`s Punjab organiser Chaudhry Sarwar on Wednesday issued a `white paper` on Punjab government`s `poor performance` in the education sector emphasizing that the education has not been the government`s priority but the mega projects to gain political mileage.

He said the imparting of education and crime rate were correlated, asserting that joblessness and crime rate was on the rise in Punjab just because the government failed to ensure imparting of quality education to the children and youth.

He claimed that Punjab was being ranked third among provinces in the country in terms of imparting quality education. In reality, the education standards had fallen by 3.338 per cent in Punjab, he claimed.

Among 36 districts in Punjab, he said, only three districts had shownimprovement in the standards of education. Only nine districts in Punjab had shown 80pc improvement in educationstandards,he stated.

The white paper states that some 50pc school-going age girls and 44pc boys are out-of-school. Some 18pc schools` buildings in the province are in a dilapidated condition and most schoolchildren have no facility of toilets. Some 26pc schools have nofacility ofelectricity.

The paper says only 10pc schools are either secondary or higher secondary schools, while every seventh public school in Punjab is without a boundary-wall.

Mr Sarwar said every 20th public school in the province lacked (clean) drinking water facility. He said that 7pc public schools had one-classroom.

He said the Punjab government had failed in improving the education sector despite tall claims, adding that no society could progress without promoting education.He said the crime rate would continue increasing, if children and youth were not educated properly.

According to media reports about the situation of education, he said that 13 million 5-16 years of age children were not attending any school in the province.

About schools` physical infrastructure, he said, every fourth school did not have electricity facility, every 20th school lacked drinking water facility and what to say about safe drinl(ing water facility, and every seventh school was without a boundary wall.

Mr Sarwar said that it was the responsibility of the government to ensure children`s safety in schools and provide all missing facilities.

He said it was surprising that 7pc public schools had one-classroom schools in Punjab. He claimed that there were 252 non-functional schools in Punjab, most of them in South Punjab.

The white paper explained thatthe government had failed to provide required educationalfacilities inruralareasofthe province due to which the enrolment ratio in Punjab stood at 62pc, which reduced to 25pc in middle standard in urban areas and15pcinruralareas.

He said some 56pc children were leaving schools after completing primary education due to poverty.

He said the survey of education standards in government schools showed that only 63pc children could read Urdu story fluently, while 57pc students could read English sentences.

He said that only 51pc students could solve two-digit math question.

He said the media reports suggested that almost 72pc of posts for schoolteachers were lying vacant, while many schools were working with just one teacher.

On an average, he said, a teacher was spending some 50 days on nonteaching duties per annum in Punjab.