RAWALPINDI, Jan 20: Rawalpindi has been declared the best district in the province with respect to school enrolment, condition of facilities in schools and overall literacy rate, said district Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani.

He was quoting a survey by the Punjab government in this regard while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a computer centre at Government Primary School Jarahi.

A survey conducted by Punjab Education Sector Reforms had identified Rawalpindi as the district with the highest rate of literacy (72 per cent) to be followed by Lahore (64.7 per cent). The average above 10 literacy rate for the province is 44 per cent.

Despite this marked improvement, over 0.7 million illiterates reside in this district and 37 per cent boys and 55 per cent girls never go to school. The Nazim said the district government fully realized that no country could develop itself until it educates its masses.

With this in mind, he said, the district government immediately after coming into being declared education as its priority and worked for the improvement of this all important sector.

He said it was his administration's objective that no child in the district remains out of school for want of uniform and books. The process of revamping of education facilities is continuing, he said and added that projects worth Rs150 million have been approved for the district schools under Education Sector Reforms programme.

Work on these projects would be initiated shortly, the Nazim said. This money, he said, would be basically spent on providing the missing facilities like lavatories, boundary walls, furniture, teaching aids at government run schools.

Speaking about devolution, he said, one of the best examples is that of Jarahi Union Council that had received development funds worth Rs20 million during past two.

In contrast to this, he said, a meagre amount of Rs55,000 was spent during 12 years prior to installation of district government. District council member Bushra Ansar Ishaq also spoke to the gathering.