LAHORE: Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas on Friday announced plans to recruit 16,000 educators and grade-1 to 11 employees in the department.

He was addressing a press conference after holding chief executive officers of the district education authorities meeting in the province.

He said free books would reach every school in the province by next Friday and school teacher interns (STIs) would also get their salaries on Sept 1.

Mr Raas said a toll-free helpline was launched for complaints and the public should record their complaints about the school education on 042-111112020.

He said Insaf Academies would be established in the province online.

He said 950 schools were closed due to flooding and all students were shifted to nearby schools.

Earlier, the Punjab School Education Department stopped the salaries of thousands of STls recruited under a project of Insaf schools launched by the previous government of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The government has planned to bring out-of-school children back to school and recruited thousands of STls in 2019, 2020 and 2021.