Free education: PEF signs agreement with 155 schools

A ceremony was held at the PEF regional office to sign the agreements.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has signed partnership agreements with 155 private schools to pay tuition for needy students.

The partnership expands phase-8 of the Foundation Assisted School (FAS) programme. FAS aims to provide free schooling to children who lack resources. During this phase, 200 private schools will be partnered with.

A ceremony was held at the PEF regional office on Saturday to sign the agreements. PEF Chairman Raja Anwar was the chief guest.

Raja Anwar said FAS was PEF’s flagship programme. He said it was providing free education to 1.2 million poor students through a network of more than 2,100 schools. He said the largest programme for free education for out-of-school children had been launched and no child would be left behind. He said the PEF had also restarted its skills development programme for matric-level students. He said the FAS program was encouraging girls’ education in disenfranchised communities. FAS Director Nadeem Masood gave details of various new initiatives. PEF Regional Director Syed Naveed Abbas and Additional Director Iftikhar Rabbani also spoke on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2014.