Murad Raas says teachers' lives made 'hassle free' with online processes

• Punjab education minister says teachers' lives will now be "hassle free" with online processes
• Transfers, leaves, retirement, promotions and appraisals have all been shifted online
• Raas says this way teachers "can focus on our children"

Punjab's Minister for Education Murad Raas on Sunday said that the government has made the lives of teachers "hassle free" with the introduction of online processes.

Listing the steps taken in this regard, Raas said that transfers, leaves, retirement, promotions and appraisals have all been shifted online.

He said this way teachers "can focus on our children".

A day earlier, Raas had expressed the resolve to lower the school drop-out rate and bring children back to school.

"Children have to be brought back to schools," he wrote.

To that end, he held a meeting with CEOs and DEOs of institutes in 18 districts regarding Punjab's new "School Enrolment Drive".

According to a report on The News, the "School Enrolment Drive" has a particular focus on students who dropped out during the prolonged closures of schools twice in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing a press conference on Friday to speak of the initiative, Raas said that instead of engaging schoolteachers in the enrolment drive, school councils would be involved to engage with the local community to send their kids who either dropped out from the schools during the recent closures or the already out-of-school children (OOSC) across the province.

Raas said that the enrolment drive would continue throughout the year and the department had set a target of bringing back one million children to government schools.

He said there were 120,000 private and public schools in Punjab and the department did not have a field force to monitor every school, adding however that it was possible with the support of media and community.