RAWALPINDI: Punjab government has asl(ed the district administration to compile details of missing facilities in educational institutions so that development projects would be launched to provide them to students.

This was stated in a meeting with Commissioner Amir Khattak in the chair here on Tuesday. Lawmakers from Rawalpindi, Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema, Parks and Horticulture Authority Director General Ahmed Hasan Ranjha and other concerned officials attended the meeting.

The commissioner said that keeping in mind the importance of education the government of Punjab was upgrading educational institutions. `The basic aim of the development schemes is to provide facilities in government educational institutions so that students do not feel the need to go to private schools,` he said.

He said by raising the quality of education, we can join the ranl(s of developed countries because through education we can gain moral as well as economic and social progress.

In this regard, the education department is directed to prepare a detailed list of all the requirements in the educational institutions in the next 10 days so that it can be presented at the concerned forum and get approved as soon as possible. He said that five million population of Rawalpindi can be converted into useful workforce by providing them with quality education. He said that steps were being taken to complete the missing facilities in schools across the division on an emergency basis.

`Boundary walls and required number of classrooms will also be ensured in the schools. Apart from this, special efforts are being made in relation to school enrollment to ensure that all children are enrolled in schools and given free education up to the age of sixteen,` he said.

Moreover, he said teachers were also trained to impart education in a creative way, apart from the traditional methods, because our future is in their hands. In such a way, steps are being taken to adapt the teachers to modern methods so that they can teach their students in the same way.

Speaking at the meeting, MNA Hanif Abbasi asked the education department to ensure all facilities to students in the educational institutions of Rawalpindi by following the model colleges and other institutions in Islamabad being managed by the federal government.

It may be mentioned that there are 17 male public sector degree colleges and 33 female colleges in the district. There were a total of 1809 schools in the district but after handing over of 323 of them to the private sector, the number of public sector schools has reduced to 1,486.-Aamir Yasin