[PoliticalStagePk]

Steep decline in Punjab’s literacy rate due to rulers’ incompetence and insincerity: Moonis Elahi

Lahore Moonis Elahi the senior central leader of Pakistan Muslim League has strongly criticized Punjab Education Department’s poor performance of last two and a half years. Quoting the 2010 Global Monitoring Report of an international service organisation in which Punjab’s literacy rate has been shown taking a steep plunge, Moonis Elahi has held the Shahbaz Government as fully responsible for this disappointing performance. According to Moonis Elahi the World Bank and the UN reports of 2007 had acknowledged that Punjab’s literacy rate had jumped to 62% under Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s pro education policies.

Moonis Elahi alleges Shahbaz Government’s incompetence and vested interests behind the sharp decline in Punjab’s literacy and enrollment rates since 2008. He has also dubbed the Punjab Government’s controversial decision of appointing boards of directors with sweeping powers in government owned colleges as nothing short of villainy with future generations. Moonis Elahi made these comments during a meeting with members of Pakistan Muslim League Education Wing in Lahore today.

He alleged that the majority of appointments in these boards of directors were politically motivated and therefore counterproductive. He said that these boards were as controversial and useless as the dozens of task forces existing in Punjab since 2008 and which had been unable in proving to date their efficacy and utility. Moonis Elahi reiterated his firm commitment to the concerns and interests of students, teachers and parents of the province in the backdrop of the continuous anti-education policies of the Shahbaz administration. He said that the present Punjab rulers’ interest in the growth of education and the bright future of the students could be assessed from the fact that Punjab Education Department had been running without a minister since 2008.