UKAID to assist 60,000 students in Punjab

Event held to mark renovation of 150 schools in flood affected areas.

MULTAN:

PLAN Pakistan (PP), an organisation working to help marginalised children to access their rights to healthcare, education, livelihood and protection, will soon complete the rehabilitation of 500 government primary schools in the flood affected districts with the help of UKAID. This was announced by Haider Yaqoob, the PP country director, at a steering convention of the project, Getting Children Back to School, on Tuesday.

The event was attended by members of civil society organisations, local and international NGOs and district government officials.

The event was organised to mark the completion of the reconstruction and renovation of 150 schools on which work started in December 2010.

PP was provided funds for the project from the government of United Kingdom through its department of international development.

Yaqoob said that the project aimed at providing more than 60,000 primary school children with facilities including water supply and sanitation, school furniture, stationery, bags and uniforms and health and hygiene education.

He said that solar panels for electricity will be installed at some 300 schools as a pilot installation. Capacities of teachers and school staff will also be enhanced he said.

“Teachers and other school staff will be trained on a variety of important issues including child protection, disaster risk reduction and psycho-social issues,” he said.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Education Department and PP towards the end of the event to facilitate prompt start of the project.

Education Secretary Muhammad Aslam Kamboh and Deputy Secretary Qaisar Rasheed signed the MoU. “We will try to facilitate education in Punjab as much as we can,” Kamboh said.

Teachers attending the event discussed challenges faced by their schools. The deputy secretary later briefed the participants about the annual budget allocated to the education sector and future development projects.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2011.