Punjab to Replace Free Textbooks With Funds for Deserving Students
The Punjab School Education Department has decided to suspend delivery of free textbooks to qualified students from grade 1 to matric from 1 April 2024.
Students registered under Punjab Education Foundation institutions, as well as those receiving education under the Benazir Income Support Programme and the government’s special affordable voucher education plan, would be affected by this move.
Instead of receiving free textbooks, the pupils will be provided funds to buy them. However, students in all government-run primary, middle, high, and upper secondary institutions will continue to receive free textbooks as per routine.
Reports indicate that roughly 600,000 students are presently enrolled in all 8,500 high, middle, and primary schools run by the Punjab Education Foundation. Approximately 200,000 children are registered in the Ministry of Education’s special free voucher education plan, while 196,000 are enrolled in the Benazir Income Support Programme.
The Punjab Teachers’ Union has strongly opposed this shift, denouncing the elimination of free textbooks and requesting that the present arrangement be maintained.
As noted by Rana Liaquat, the union’s central secretary general, if the government wishes to offer to finance to deserving children instead of free textbooks, they should be given enough money to pay for all of the books so that parents can buy them on the open market at their discretion rather than waiting for free textbooks.
Source: Pro Pakistani