PEF to provide educational facilities to two lakh deserving children

Lahore: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has planned to provide gratis educational facilities to two lakh poor and deserving children of suitable ages in next five years under it public private partnership model. The purpose of this initiative is to open the doors of quality education to the economically deprived children especially the females who couldn’t go to schools due to lack of resources and access.

Chairman, Punjab Education Foundation, Raja Anwar stated this while presiding over the district coordination meeting of various schools of northern region partnered with the PEF under its foundation assisted schools (FAS) program, at a local hotel, on Monday. PEF-DMDs, Director (FAS) Nadeem Masood and other concerned officers also attended the meeting.

At the outset, PEF Chairman observed that public private partnership in the field of education has greatly helped the poor communities in Punjab as it catalyzed to break the shackles of poverty through quality education.

“It’s important to note that the foundation was already giving free education to 13 lakh deserving students in Punjab and 52 percent of them are females.”

While underscoring the importance of promoting knowledge-based society for national development, he said that shouldering the educational expenditures of about 11 lakh deserving students in Punjab, under the umbrella of FAS, is a clear proof of its huge success and service to the poor. His also disclosed that Department for International Development of the United Kingdom has agreed to provide financial support worth 70 million pounds for a period of five years to the PEF for further extending the gratis educational programs. PEF Chairman told that initiatives like anti-corporal punishment program, library books and co-curricular activities have helped to develop a confident generation of youngsters. He told that complaint cell has been set up in the FAS program to immediately solve the issues relating to the partners. He announced that upper ceiling of A plus, A & B category FAS schools has been increased from 500 to 750 students while the upper ceiling of 750 has also been increased to one thousand students to accommodate the maximum number of deserving students. Similarly, FAS partners are allowed to give admissions to deserving 5-16 years old out of school children and for this purpose, they are permitted to construct additional class rooms within three months.

The DCM was also addressed by DMD-Finance Salman Anwar Malik, Director-FAS Nadeem Masood and Additional Director Iftikhar Rabbani.