PEF aims to educate 2.8 million by 2018

LAHORE:

Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) Managing Director Aneela Shah said on Saturday that the foundation had introduced and implemented the most cost-effective, result-oriented and efficient models of free schooling for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

She was speaking at a tripartite discussion on public-private partnership and low-cost schooling in the city. Shah said the purpose of this initiative was to improve quality of children’s lives by making them acquire education. She said 1.6 million children were being provided free education at the foundation’s 4,000 partner schools across the province.

Shah said the PEF had set a target of educating 2.8 million students for free by 2018. She said new schools would be opened across the province through the foundation’s public-private partnership model. Shah said the foundation had been organising teacher training and capacity building programmes for the faculty of partner schools to improve teaching standards.  She said information technology was also being used to further transparency and efficiency. Shah said the PEF had been encouraging parents to enrol their daughters at its partner schools. She said this had led to a marked increase in girls’ education at the primary level. Shah said the foundation had been striving to ensure that a children-friendly atmosphere was fostered at its partner schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2015.