Samanabad Girls Degree College holds speech contest

Lahore: Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan has said that due to sincere efforts of the present government, investors from all over the world are coming to Pakistan and terrorism and load-shedding will soon be resolved. He said that a new era of progress and prosperity will usher in the country during next two to three years. He said that the vision of the government is to prepare such a workforce of educated and talented youth who could work hard and enable Pakistan to join the rank of developed nations of the world. He said that the government considers encouragement and provision of financial assistance to talented students as its basic responsibility.

He was addressing inaugural ceremony of the second phase of speech contest at Samanabad Girls Degree College, here today.

Principal of the college, teachers and a large number of parents were present on the occasion.

Rana Mashhood said it is a fact that education is essential for progress and prosperity of the nation. He said that Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has diverted resources to education sector and 27 percent of the budget which is 310 billion rupees has been allocated for the promotion of education. He said that Punjab government is running the biggest educational system of the world through such unique projects as Daanish schools, Lahore Knowledge Park, laptop scheme and PEF. He said that the standard of education of the students completing education from the educational institutions of Punjab is much better than other provinces.

The Provincial Minister further said that government is extending full encouragement to talented and hard working students. He said that cash prizes of more than one billion rupees have been distributed among the position holders of different educational institutions of Punjab and their teachers during last six years.

Similarly, he said that cash prizes are also awarded to the children obtaining top positions in speech and easy writing contests. He said that such positive activities of Punjab government are also followed by other provinces. He said that due to the efforts of Punjab Education Department, the enrolment in schools has increased beyond 90 percent while attendance rate of teachers which was 67 percent a few years ago has increased to 92 percent.