Punjab has demonstrated a new primary school system and ability to increase enrolment and improve quality at the same time
The rate of improvement in vaccination of children is absolutely remarkable
Improvement in the performance and quality of hospitals is amazing
Leadership’s absolute determination, continued focus and persistence is unique
ISLAMABAD Oct 23 (TNS): Sir Michael Barber, the renowned British Educationist is all praise for the social reforms initiated by the government of Punjab under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif. “There are number of very significant improvements in the social sector in Punjab that we should draw attention to,” he said.
“The first is, Punjab has demonstrated a new primary school system and ability to increase enrolment and improve quality at the same time. If you look at across the border in India you will see that many states have improved enrolment very significantly but the quality is dropped,” he said.
“Here in Punjab enrolment has gone up, retention has gone up and quality has gone up. And we can show that in the data. This is remarkable,” he commented.
“These achievements make it one of the leading education reforms; one of the leading education reforms anywhere in the world with 55 thousands of government schools and 40 thousand low cast private schools. It’s a tremendous achievement.
“The second achievement is the rate of improvement in vaccination of children. It’s is absolutely remarkable. The percentage of children being vaccinated is up around 90 percent; which used to be down around 50 or 60 %. It means that we will achieve what is called by medics, herd Immunity; it means those childhood diseases will be pretty much wiped out across Punjab. That’s remarkable!
And then the third thing (achievement), during the last 18 months, is the improvement in the performance and quality of hospitals. About two years ago, the hospitals were not functioning efficiently. The hospitals are much cleaner than they were two years ago. “These are remarkable achievements. It’s not a finished job it’s a tremendous improvement,” Sir Michael Barber.
“Some significant lessons for what Punjab has done. The first is their persistence. The Chief Minister never gave up nor did his officials. This is really important! Great lesson: political leadership’s absolute determination, continued focus and persistence are really important. Punjab is unique, I think genuinely unique across the whole world for combining delivery with really good and modern technology.
