6,000 Cholistan children benefited from PEF initiatives

LAHORE:

A five-member delegation of the Department for International Development (DFID) visited the head office of Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) on Friday. The delegation held a meeting with PEF Managing Director Tariq Mahmood to review pace of work on various DFID-funded public-private ventures for promotion of free education across the province.

PEF Deputy Managing Director Tariq Rafiq was also present at the occasion. Mahmood told the delegation that the foundation had sponsored education of over 6,000 students from low-income households in Cholistan desert.

He said the PEF had opened 10 mobile schools catering to the education needs of children of nomad families.

He said that the PEF had taken several initiatives to promote transparency and enhance the effectiveness of its educational programmes. “We have automated the data of around 1.9 million students,” he said.

Other such initiatives were development of an online system to disburse monthly stipend among beneficiaries at the PEF partner schools.

The PEF MD said the foundation was striving to promote girls education in far-off areas of the province. He said that about 45 percent of students benefiting from various PEF programmes were girls.

Meanwhile, 14th quality assurance test of education voucher scheme ended on Friday.

As many as 13,067 students from 295 schools sat the test on the last day. Partnership agreements were signed with private schools in Muzaffargarh under the expansion phase 15 of the education voucher scheme at a ceremony held in Multan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.