Three more schools for meritorious students to come up in Punjab soon

 The Punjab Government on Monday approved the setting up of three more schools for meritorious students at Sangrur, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur districts. 

A sum of `30 crore each will be spent on these schools to provide free quality education and hostel facilities for all brilliant students of the Government schools, who had scored 80 per cent or above marks in the matriculation examinations. 

This decision was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a meeting to review the progress of ‘Meritorious Schools’ here. While finalising the design and layout of the upcoming schools, the Chief Minister said these schools would be established on the pattern of already existing seven such ‘Meritorious Schools’ at Mohali, Patiala, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Amritsar, ludhiana and Talwara (Hoshiarpur). 

These schools were not only imparting academic education but also providing coaching to students for the competition exams, communication skills so as to compete on par with their peers from public and convent schools, he said. 

Meanwhile, Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema informed the CM there was a huge increase in the number of students seeking admission in these meritorious schools, which was evident from the fact that nearly 8,400 students from various schools were eligible this year against 3,500 of last year.