Lahore, Oct. 23 (TNS): Michael Barber, renowned educationist termed Punjab as best for health and education reforms in the whole world.
Michael Barber is a British educationist and Founder and Chairman of Delivery Associates, an advisory firm focussed on working with governments and other organisations to help them deliver improved outcomes for citizens.
“I think, there are number of significant improvements made in social sector of Punjab, which we need to draw attention to”, Barber said.
“First is the Punjab that is clearly demonstrated in the Primary School system, and ability to increase enrollment and improve quality at the same time is commendable”, the British educationist said adding that “If you look at across the border in India, you will see that many states there have improved enrollment very significantly, but the quality there has dropped”.
He said due to government efforts, the enrolment, retention and quality, all have gone up in Punjab.
“This is remarkable, one of the leading education reforms anywhere in the world with 55 k government schools and 40 k low cost private schools. It’s a tremendous achievement”, the British education activist added.
He went on to say that the rate of improvement in vaccination of children, which is absolutely remarkable and means that we will achieve Herd Immunity and it means those childhood diseases will pretty much wiped out across Punjab which is extraordinary.
“The third thing is the improvement in the performance and quality of hospitals. These are remarkable achievements. Until about 2 years ago, hospitals were not functioning efficiently which now have been greatly improved. These are remarkable achievements. None of them are enough as it’s not a finish job. However, it’s a tremendous improvement”, Barber further said.
“I think there are some significant lessons to be learnt from what Punjab has done. The CM never gave up nor did his officials. This is really important; great lesson, political leadership, absolute determination, continued focus and persistence is what CM Punjab is all about”, Michael Barber concluded.
