US Consul General Grace Shelton and Sindh Minister for Education Jam Mehtab Dahar witnessed the signing of agreement between School Education and Literacy Department and private organisations to manage government schools built under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP) at a local hotel in Karachi. Others who also attended the event includes Oghale Oddo, USAID Deputy Mission Director and Iqbal Durrani, Sindh Secretary of Education.
US Consul General Grace Shelton said that Sindh Basic Education Programme is helping improve the quality of teaching and increase equitable access to safe learning opportunities for the children, especially girls. These children, who will receive free and quality education, will grow up to become the next generation of engineers, doctors, teachers, and entrepreneurs. Sindh is the first province to enter into agreements with the private sector organisations for a period of up to 10 years to improve the operations of public schools under the Education Management Organisation (EMO) policy.
Under these agreements, Indus Resource Centre (IRC), Charter for Compassion (CFC), Health and Nutrition Society (HANDS), and Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) will manage a total of 14 schools built recently under the SBEP.
These schools are part of the 106 large state-of-the-art buildings being rebuilt in northern Sindh and Karachi under the SBEP, which is an initiative of worth $155 million and is aimed at increasing and sustaining student enrolment in primary, middle, and secondary public schools. Nine other schools, whose construction had completed earlier, are already being run under similar agreements.
