The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Sindh education department and Intel Pakistan Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve access to and quality of education in the province.
Speaking at a signing ceremony, US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard G Olson said: “We all recognise that prosperity and a better life cannot be built without a strong foundation in a quality education.” He said this agreement with Intel Pakistan would go a long way towards making education more accessible to the children of Sindh.
Under the terms of the MOU, Intel would provide training to at least 800 government teachers, 4,000 students, and 4,000 out-of-school adolescents and adults over a period of three years. This would enable them to use effectively information communication technology (ICT) in school education, literacy, and daily life.
Intel Pakistan would also work with the USAID-funded Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP) to support school and regional public libraries.
USAID Provincial Director Leon S Waskin, Secretary of the Sindh Department of Education Dr Fazalullah Pechuho; and Intel Pakistan Country Manager Naveed Siraj joined Ambassador Olson at the signing ceremony at the US Consulate General. USAID Pakistan has provided support to the government of Sindh’s education and literacy department through a $155 million programme to construct 120 large public schools in seven districts of the province and five towns in Karachi.
Its a wonderful element of recognition that a leading earning province of Pakistan, i.e. Sindh, is consistently legging behind in providing basic education facilities to the children. And even a worst case would be the initiative of developing new schools without, 1) triggering academic process in the existing ones, 2) motivating and mobilizing communities for importance of education and their role in promoting it and 3) economic incentives the communities would have in order to play productively in a society. As far as process of teachers' training is concerned, an effective policy of measurement and evaluation must be sorted out to grade teachers for their performance in training and teaching skills in order to provide them some financial incentives.
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