FREE EDUCATION TO GIRLS IN PUNJAB

Punjab will provide free-of-cost education to girls till Class XII under a new scheme starting from July 1 this year.
Disclosing this here today, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said the move besides relieving families of the burden of educating the girl child, would also check the dropout rate in schools in the state.
Sukhbir said from the start of the next academic session all government and government-aided schools would provide free-of-cost education to the girl child up to Class XII.
He said the schools would not even charge local funds from the girls. The Deputy Chief Minister said under the scheme, funds like admission fee, re-admission fee, amalgamated funds, PTA funds and sports funds would not be charged from the girl child up to Class XII. He said the government had set aside Rs 26 crore for the scheme.
The Deputy CM said 4,000 primary schools in the state were set to be equipped with proper furniture with Rs 60 crores being approved for all those primary schools where children were forced to sit on mat. He said the SAD-BJP government would ensure that no student studying in the government school sat on the floor and would provide proper furniture for every school. He said more than 11.92 lakh primary school students would be benefited from the scheme.