Foundation sets target of educating 2.8m by 2018

Interactive classroom technology introduced at 25 PEF partner schools.

CHOA SAIDEN SHAH: Punjab Education Foundation Managing Director Aneela Salman said on Sunday the foundation had formulated and implemented superior educational models in collaboration with the private sector to promote free education among the underprivileged.

She was speaking at a prize-distribution ceremony at a PEF partner school in Choa Saiden Shah. Salman said the models devised by the foundation had also hastened the promotion of education in remote and underdeveloped areas of the province where there was a paucity of schooling facilities. She said the foundation’s collaboration with the private sector had accrued several socioeconomic benefits for local communities at the grassroots. Salman said this had helped further girls’ education and made parents enrol children at PEF partner schools.



The PEF MD said the foundation had played a pivotal role in realising the aims of the Education Reforms Roadmap. She said the foundation would now strive to make the Parho Punjab Barho Punjab scheme a success. “The PEF has set a target of educating 2.8 million needy students by 2018. Expansion phases of various free-education programmes are announced every year to provide deserving students with greater access to the models,” Salman said.

She said interactive classroom technology had been introduced at 25 PEF partner schools across Chakwal, Lahore and Multan. Salman said a pilot of the evening education programme had been introduced through the foundation’s education voucher scheme in Lahore and Multan. She said the programme had been especially formulated for domestic workers and child labourers. Salman said over 5,000 students had enrolled in the programme. She said this demonstrated the remarkable success of the initiative.

Salman exhorted teachers to instil courage, self-confidence and truthfulness in students as the nation needed dedicated young leaders in every field. She urged students to study hard and excel in their chosen fields.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2015.