Keeping in mind the interests of children and teachers of Associated Schools of the state, the Punjab Government has today given one more year extension to fulfill the affiliation criteria.Divulging this, Punjab Education Minister O.P. Soni said that the initially these schools were given the time up till March 31, 2019 to comply with the guidelines so that the future of children and interests of the teachers could be secured. Now, these associated schools have been given March 31, 2020 deadline to fulfill required criteria.It is pertinent to mention here that 'Punjab Private Schools' Organization' had requested the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Education Minister Mr. O.P. Soni that four lakh students and 50,000 teachers are directly connected with these institutions and keeping in mind the time frame has been extended.On this ocassion, Mr. Soni said that in a bid to impart quality education to the students studying in government schools at par with private schools, the Education Department has decided to convert all Government Schools of three smart cities of the State namely Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana into smart schools. He said that amount of approximately Rs 20 crore has been released to DEOs of the three districts for this purpose and work will start shortly. These schools will be equipped with laptops, multimedia projectors and high-speed internet, so that the teaching and learning process becomes easier and more effective. Besides this, Ten Model Schools would be set up in every constituency statewide, in the forthcoming academic year, he said.