Murad Raas vows to 'bring our children back to school'

Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas on Friday said that he aims to bring the children who have dropped out, back to school.

The education minister met officials from the education department to discuss the "School Enrolment Drive" initiative.

"Met with CEOs and DEOs from 18 Districts regarding the School Enrolment Drive. All the details have been shared down to Markaz level. We will bring our children back to school InshAllah," he said.

On Monday, Raas launched a "School Enrolment Drive" with a particular focus on students who dropped out during the prolonged closures of schools twice in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing a press conference, the minister said that instead of engaging schoolteachers in the enrolment drive, school councils would be involved to engage with the local community to send their kids to schools who either dropped out from the schools during the recent closures or the already out-of-school children (OOSC) across the province.

Dr Raas said that the enrolment drive would continue throughout the year and the department had set a target of bringing back one million children to government schools.

He said there were 120,000 private and public schools in Punjab and the department did not have a field force to monitor every school, adding however that it was possible with the support of media and community.