- Pakistan Reading Project will run a mobile bus library programme in Sindh and Islamabad over next two years and will bring reading materials directly to communities and help re-establish reading habits
- USAID mission director, state minister for federal education sign MoU to continue working towards improvement in the quality of education through teacher training
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) jointly inaugurated the USAID-funded $165 million Pakistan Reading Project’s mobile bus library programme at a government secondary school Wednesday.
Assistant to the USAID Administrator Donald Larry Sampler and IRC President David Miliband were present at a simple ceremony held to inaugurate the Mobile Bus Library Programme.
This will bring age-appropriate reading materials to communities which do not have established libraries in order to help reintroduce and re-establish a national culture of reading in Pakistan, said a statement of the US embassy.
“The Mobile Library Programme is just one element of the USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project which will help Pakistani children to start their own journeys in the world of books. Through this partnership between USAID, our implementing partner – the IRC and the government of Pakistan, we are taking a multi-pronged approach to help increase literacy,” said Larry Sampler while speaking on the occasion.
The Pakistan Reading Project, implemented by the International Rescue Committee, will run a mobile bus library programme in Sindh and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) over the next two years and will bring reading materials directly to communities and help re-establish reading habits.
Trained librarians onboard each bus will conduct story-telling sessions in each community they visit. They will also issue books for schoolchildren to take home to read.
Miliband said, “The USAID funded Pakistan Reading Project being implemented by IRC is helping to improve reading skills of children across Pakistan. The mobile bus library is another step towards promoting a reading culture in Pakistan.”
Later in the day, USAID Mission Director Gregory Gottlieb and Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Development Muhammad Baligh ur Rehman also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to continue working towards improvement in the quality of education by helping to build the skills of teachers throughout Pakistan.
At the signing, Muhammad Balighur Rehman thanked the US government for their continued support to raising standards in Pakistani education, it said.
The USAID-funded project is supporting Pakistan’s provincial and regional departments of education to improve the reading skills of children. It is one part of a comprehensive education programme that the United States implements in Pakistan in partnership with the Government of Pakistan, it said.
MILIBAND LAUDS NATIONAL CURRICULUM:
During his meeting with Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Balighur Rehman on Wednesday, Miliband appreciated the national curriculum evolved by the present government as a great achievement of the government.
Miliband said education is very important for the future of Pakistan and the government’s commitment to meet its Millennium Development Goals is encouraging.
Balighur Rehman apprised him about the educational achievements of present government. He said that all the provincial governments are increasing the annual allocations for education. He reaffirmed the federal government’s stance that it will raise the current two percent of GDP allocations for education up to four percent.
The minister said quality and free access to education are the major challenges the government is currently confronting.