Ghani lauds USAID’s role in improving education standards

9,000 schools identified by the Sindh government will be revamped soon

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government has always prioritised education and health sector, which is why whenever they have come into power, they have focused on spending on these two sectors, said Sindh Minister for Information and Labour Saeed Ghani.

He was speaking as a chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of a government secondary school on Monday in Yousuf Goth, Gadap Town, which was constructed with the collaboration of the United States Agency for International Development.

"The agency is helping the Sindh government under the Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP) in improving not only the infrastructure of the schools but the standard of education throughout the province," he said, acknowledging USAID's role in the province.

The school will start functioning in April and around 600 students will be able to receive quality education there. .

Addressing the students, he asked them to work hard with honesty and told them that he could never attain quality education. "You should consider yourself extremely lucky to be here," he said. "I could not get this kind of opportunity of getting standard education, or the school like this one to study."

USAID Mission Director to Pakistan Julie Koenen said that the partnership between the agency and the Sindh government has already borne fruit in the shape of improved quality of education in the province's public schools. "The children in Sindh, who receive free education in state-of-the-art schools, will grow up to become the next generation of Pakistan's engineers, doctors, teachers, and entrepreneurs," Koenen.

Ghani mentioned that 112 schools in the province will be refurbished by next year, whereas 9,000 more schools have been identified by the government that will also be revamped. He told the audience that the USAID is spending $155 million for the cause, while the government would bear the remaining costs.

"I believe that what we spend on our children today is our investment for our future," he stated. The provincial minister informed that all basic facilities for the children will be ensured in all schools of the province, whereas all abandoned schools will be closed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2020.