Opposition raps Punjab govt in assembly for not resolving education issues

LAHORE: The opposition in Punjab Assembly on Monday led by Opposition leader PTI MPA Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed censured the government for merely increasing the budget allocation for education in Punjab Annual Budget 2015-16 without addressing the prevailing issues of missing facilities, dangerous buildings, poor teacher to student ratio, and millions of out-of-school children in the province.
The assembly reconvened with a discussion and voting on demand for grants 2015-16 and notices of motions to reduce government demands. Prior to the discussion, the leader of the Opposition on a point of order requested that his resolution on the alarming situation of loadshedding in the month of Ramazan be allowed to be introduced. Talking of the protests staged by citizens over blackouts at sehri and Iftar time, Rasheed said it was unfortunate that the public was being given no relief in the holy month and a high number of deaths had taken place due to the heat-wave. As Law Minister Rana Sanaullah was absent from the House at the time, the speaker assured him that it would be considered for later. The Opposition leader along with a few PTI MPAs later staged a brief walkout from the House.
Beginning the discussion, Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha moved a demand that a sum not exceeding 56,337,225,000 rupees be granted to the Punjab governor to meet expenditure other than charged on the Provincial Consolidated Fund for the financial year 2015-16 ending on 30 June, 2016 in respect of education. Her demand was accepted with a House voting with a majority in favour of the demand raised.
PTI MPA Dr Murad Rass, meanwhile, moved a cut motion supported by the entire opposition that the total of 56,337,225,000 on account of the mentioned demand regarding education be reduced to one rupee. The demand was rejected by the House.
The PTI MPA said it was useless to provide the department with funds when the government had failed to honour Article 25 (A) of the Constitution on compulsory education for children between the ages of 5 and 16. The increasing number of dropouts and poor retention rates, he said, should be studied instead of superficial figures on school enrolment. Rass claimed that there are 4727 dangerous school buildings in Punjab and 4000 students studying in one-room schools. Instead of making new Danish Schools, Rass added, the Punjab government should reform existing schools in a bad shape, provide clean drinking water in public schools, and make changes in the curriculum. He claimed that 24 percent of schools in Rawalpindi did not have clean drinking water and proposals by PTI for funds for schools set up by the party met with objections from politicised EDOS (education officers) in their constituencies.
Dr Murad Rass criticised the government for not spending even one percent of the budget for special education of 400 billion rupees last fiscal year as reported in the Budget White Paper published this year. Rass stated that 35,000 private schools in Punjab were benefiting from the poor performance of Punjab government and were exploitatively charging parents of students with enormous tuition fees. Despite orders from the Lahore High Court, Rass informed that schools in the province were continuing to charge summer fees. He demanded the government bring a policy regulating private schools to stop the exploitation of hardworking parents. Referring to the disparity in education, the PTI MPA said there was no equal playing field between students taught in government run Urdu medium schools and children from elite private schools in qualifying for entry to universities, jobs, and other opportunities.
PTI MPA Mian Aslam Iqbal said it was unfortunate that 37 percent of schools going aged children were uneducated and lapses in the budget for education were commonplace under the PML-N. Iqbal criticised the government for spending disproportionately on newspaper advertisements to market their education programmes that could be spent on fixing dangerous school buildings. The teacher to student ratio ranges beyond 1 to 150 in most districts of Punjab, the PTI MPA said. Referring to a recent report by Auditor General Punjab, Iqbal said there was massive corruption within the Danish School programme with contractors being paid unjustified payments, 30 lakhs annual salary of the Managing Director, and complained that there was no mechanism for internal audit and accountability. When the Chief Minister does not respect the law, the PTI MPA lamented that the public would follow by example.
Instead of allocating 5 billion rupees for laptops under higher education, Iqbal recommended that the money be put into electricity generation to give the public relief from the heat. The MPA also accused Punjab government for politicising the police and bureaucracy, in addition to mistreating protesting teachers asking for fair wages and regularisation.
PML-Q MPA Sardar Vickas Mokal added to the round of criticism by alerting the House to the condition of furniture in public schools and the lack of key performance indicators to assess the status of schools. PPP MPA from Layyah Makhdoom Shahabuddin in his speech meanwhile said South Punjab lacked schools and universities despite of increases for the impoverished region in the development budget. He complained that there was no secondary schools for girls in his constituency and urged that all neglected South Punjab districts be acceded to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Meanwhile, PTI MPA Shunila Ruth said there was no government school in Youhanabad despite it being the constituency of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. PTI MPA Siddique Khan also demanded refresher courses for public school teachers and independent MPA Ehsan Riaz Fatyana said new private schools were being set up without any regulation. The absence of CM Punjab from the House throughout the year was also pointed out by PML-Q MPA Khadija Umar. PPP Parliamentary Leader Qazi Ahmed Saeed said he would believe the promises of the government when a college of Government College University (GCU) standard was set up in South Punjab.
Education Minister Rana Mashhood in the concluding remarks narrated a long list of achievements of the Punjab government in the sector and missing facilities, dangerous buildings, and other matters were being addressed. The assembly then proceeded to take up the cut motion by the opposition to bring the spending on police to one rupee only moved by PTI MPA Siddique Khan. The debate on the demand will continue. The House was adjourned for Tuesday.