1.5 mln to take part in school sports festival: Mashhood

LAHORE, Feb 18 (APP):Punjab School Education Minister Rana
Mashhood Ahmed Khan has said that the Punjab School education department
will hold the largest ever school children sports festival from
March in which 1.5 million school children will take part.
In an interview with APP here on Sunday, he said that the
largest ever school children sports festival including 15 million
Punjab school children was being launched in partnership with
United Kingdom (UK) Sports and collaboration with the UK government.
To a query, he said sports were an antidote to racism and
intolerance in the society, adding that sports also ensure a
healthy society.
To another query, the education Minister said UK was the
largest donor in the education sector in Punjab and all funding
was due to the unshakeable confidence of UK government in the
governance module in Punjab. He said the British would also
fund Punjab school education department on the vocational training education from class 8 in all public sector schools in Punjab.
He said teacher training module, today, was the largest
in the world in school education and 450,000 teachers were
provided training, adding that the training was started on
University College London (UCL), Cambridge and Oxford model.
“Digital libraries will be launched in all public sector
schools in Punjab from the month of March 2018”, he said.
On out-of-school children, School Education Minister said
the negative image regarding high number of out of school
children was improved a great deal by the school education
department, adding that out of school children between the
age group 5-9 years from brick-kiln, restaurants and petrol
stations were brought back to schools. “No children between
age 5-9 will be out of schools from next academic year”,
the minister claimed.
About the low-performing public sector schools, the education
minister said more schools will be given to the well-reputed
educational entities for improvement in education standards,
adding that initially 4300 low performing schools, where enrolment
was under 20 and annual result was from 0-20 percent, were handed
over to private educational organizations.
He said the results were encouraging as the results had
improved to 80 percent while the attendance had risen to
90 percent at these low-performing schools.
About literature on child-abuse in school curriculum, he said
the syllabus had been designed in consultation with ulema, psychologists, educationist and other stake-holders and will be introduced in books
at primary, elementary and secondary levels from the next academic
session. He further said the booklet on child abuse will be made
part of the curriculum in private schools and all madrassahs besides
the public sector schools. “Awareness campaign on child abuse will
also be run across Punjab”, he added.
About Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Rana Mashood Ahmed
Khan said Shehbaz Sharif was a torch-bearer of education and health
reforms in the province and his reforms will be written in golden
words.