Lahore, Nov. 13 (TNS): Renowned British educationist Sir Michael Barber termed Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as inspiration for the world.
In a video message, Barber described Shahbaz as extremely hardworking and energetic leader who is very focused even when there is lots of political distractions, he manages to maintain his focus.
“Shhabaz Sharif is always paying attention to health and education sectors – a tremendous lesion- as he is always optimistic even in difficult times”, the British expert said adding that “He [CM Punjab] never gives up, never despairs as he always believes that problems can be solved”.
Admiring his administrative skills, Sir Michael Barber went on to share his experience saying that “Shahbaz Sharif is demanding of his officials as he deals with all political challenges that any leader has to deal with”.
“He [Shahbaz] is really committed to improvement of the condition of people of Punjab,” he added.
“His energy is complete inspiration for me as he is certainly recognized across the world that Punjab has a special leader. For me, its been a fantastic experience to work with him,” Sir Michael Barber concluded.
Earlier, Michael Barber 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.
On weekend, in his interaction with the participants of the 1st International Youth Summit, Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif threw light on the role of education and peace in achieving sustainable development goals stressing it is a prerequisite to attaining to progress and prosperity.
Meanwhile, Punjab Higher Education Department has taken great initiatives for the improvement of educational system in all provinces. In the recent years 11000 lecturers who were waiting for their promotion for last 25 years were promoted to 18 grades. Trip to the educational institutes of England, Iran and Germany was arranged for the students who got top positions in exams. Another trip to Punjab was arranged for the students from Sind, Baluchistan and KPK who got positions in exams.
22 new colleges were established in the whole province, 17 colleges were upgraded and facilities were improved and new four year degree programs were initiated in 26 colleges. Rs163.500 million cash prizes were distributed among the position holders in Secondary School (SSC) and Higher Secondary School (HSSC) examinations throughout Punjab.
Youth Commission was established to make sure the participation of students in the government policies and other initiatives.
For the first time in the whole country, Punjab Board exams were conducted under computerized system. Under this system 3.5 million students were registered online and all examination records of all board were computerized throughout Punjab.
