The hard work of the Sindh government to rehabilitate flood-affected schools has reaped benefits. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has agreed to provide an additional funding of $4 million to the province for further enhancement of flood damaged schools.
USAID was providing the Sindh government with a total of $155 million to support the education sector in Sindh under the Sindh Basic Education Programme.
Under the said programme, the flood-affected schools would be reconstructed in various districts including Khairpur, Dadu, Jacobabad, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Sukkur, Larkana, Kashmore-Kandhkot, and Karachi.
The Sindh Education Programme will also support in enhancing reading literacy in schools, alleviating malnourishment in children and provide technical assistance to departments in order to increase their capacity. The total funding for this venture is $155 million, sources told Pakistan Today.
The goal of the Sindh Basic Education programme is to increase and sustain student enrolment in primary, middle and secondary schools in targeted geographical location in Sindh.by developing.
For the additional funds from the USAID, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been vetted by the law department and approved by the chief minister. Furthermore, the education department has also requested the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to give a date for the signing of the MoU with USAID so that the additional funds could be processed.
By providing the additional funds, USAID would use their own contractors to monitor and supervise the funds. The contractors will also be hired by USAID.
The education and literacy department would just identify schools for rehabilitation and USAID will do the site inspection before taking up schools for rehabilitation.
The break-up of US-Aid funding $ 155million is as follows: Reconstruction of schools affected by floods $51million; Support for the government of Sindhs’ policies to consolidate and upgrade schools $30 million; Improved early grade reading in primary schools $30 million; Community mobilization $20 million; Technical assistance to the department of education $6 million; Monitoring and evaluation $4 million; Office of infrastructure and engineering $14 million.
