A five-member representative delegation of UK-based Department for International Development (DFID) visited the head office of Punjab Education Foundation on Friday and held a detailed meeting with Managing Director Tariq Mahmood to review pace of progress on different public-private partnership based programmes of free education for the needy students in the Punjab. Deputy MD-PEF Tariq Rafiq as well as Programme Directors were also present on the occasion.
Tariq Mahmood told that PEF is playing an important role in the promotion of education. It is noteworthy that this foundation has also sponsored education of more than 6,000 students in vast Cholistan desert; besides opening 10 mobile schools for the nomads there. He said that PEF has taken a number of pioneering initiatives to ensure transparency, effectiveness and success of its educational programmes so that desired results could be achieved according to the schedule. Besides, electronically storing 1.9 million students’ data in its main server, online payment system was also designed and put in place for monthly payments to school partners well in time. He told that PEF has also encouraged and promoted girls education in the indigent strata as its schools are situated near to the homes of such communities. As a result of our efforts, girls’ proportion in our programmes is 45 percent which shows their strong interest in learning, he added. He pointed out that PEF has emerged as the symbol of strong support to the disfranchised communities for the education of their children. Programme directors also briefed the delegation about progress on their programs.
Meanwhile, 14th quality assurance test of education voucher scheme ended on Friday with 13,067 students of 295 schools in 36 districts appearing on last day of the test.
The Punjab Education Foundation also signed partnership agreements with private school owners from Muzaffargarh district under expansion phase 15 of its education voucher scheme at a ceremony which held at PEF regional office, Multan.