Mian Manzoor Ahme Wattoo, President Punjab PPP, has extended heartiest congratulations on behalf of PPP, Punjab and on his behalf to Malala Yusuf Zai and Indian national Kilash Satyarthi for the most prestigious Nobel Peace Award for their outstanding contributions for the cause of education of the children.
He maintained that no nation could get rid of the bane of ignorance, terrorism, extremism, sectarianism and all forms of prejudices without quality education to their citizens.
He regretted that in Pakistan still only 2% of the GDP was spent on education which was peanut as compared to the severity of the challenge. It is the lowest budget allocation among the least developed countries of the world not to speak of developed countries, he pointed out.
Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo reminded that during his Chief Ministership he passed the Compulsory Education Act, 1994, that made all the parents to send school going children to schools failing which they had to face the law as Magistrates were empowered to register cases against them.
He said that he made learning of English as compulsory from the class one with a view to end the discriminatory education system. About fifty thousand graduates were recruited in the province to teach English in every school of Punjab, he added.
He pointed out that to ensure the progress in the education sector he appointed Additional Deputy Commissioners (Literacy), known for their meritorious repute in the CSP Cadre, keeping in view the rapid and seamless promotion of education in the province. Their status was almost equal to the Deputy Commissioner, he stated.
Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo further said that he notified Headmasters and Principals of schools as the most respectable personalities of the respective areas so that they could play their role effectively in the development of the schools in consultation with the notables of local community. They were given administrative and financial powers to take up the improvement of the educational institutions.
Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo deplored that the government in Punjab shelves his legislative and administrative reforms due to trivial political reasons. Had the government implemented his reforms there would have been no child without education in the province, he asserted.
Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo described the opening of Danish Schools in Punjab as flawed strategy because the opening of such schools in forsaken area was not good value for money. There are neither teachers nor the students, he observed.
Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo attributed the neglect of the sector due to the monkey business in the distribution of provincial financial resources by the Chief Minister. He demanded Provincial Finance Award Commission mandated to distribute financial resources on equitable basis among all the districts.
He pointed out that the reckless distribution of financial resources in the province was causing acute economic deprivation among the people of backward districts due to the transfer of their development funds to the few urban centers.
He observed that the Punjab government spent Rs. seventy billion on twenty eight miles long Metro Bus in Lahore at the expense of the other districts of the province. He should have spent this money on the education of millions of chidden enabling them to become an asset for the society than liability.
