LAHORE: On the World Teachers Day, the Punjab government awarded certificates and cash prizes to 500 schoolteachers of the public sector for their performance in the annual exams of the boards of intermediate and secondary (BISEs) during the academic year 2016-17.

Punjab Schools Education Minister Rana Mashhood AhmadKhan distributed awards, certificates and cash prizes among the 500 star teachers in a ceremony at Aiwan-i-Iqbal.

Addressing the event, he said the government had a plan to send 5,000 best teachers to the world`s top institutions for capacity-building while 300 of them would be sent in the first phase soon. He said interest-free loans would be pro-vided to the teachers through teachers` foundation for education of their children, healthcare and other f acilities.

Talking to the media, the teachers expressed disappointment that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif did not come to distributing awards as per the announcement. `We did not come all the way for the award or the money, we came here toreceive it from Shahbaz Sharif. It is discouragingfor the teachers that the CM did not have time for them, deplored a teacher talking to Dawn.

Other teachers complained that they were not given the travel allowance announced by the School Education Department and some chief executive officers even asked the teachers to pay for the travel expenses.-Reporter