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| January 23, 2003 | Thursday | Ziqa’ad 19, 1423 |
UAE to help establish 500 schools in remote areas
ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will help establish 500 schools in far flung areas of the country to enhance the coordination and strengthen relations between the two countries.
This was decided in a meeting between Federal Minister for Education Zobaida Jalal and the Ambassador of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ali Mohammad Bin Hamad Al-Shamsi.
The minister said the coordination in this sector would uplift the standard of education and assist Pakistan in achieving the literacy goals. She said such educational assistance would act as leverage to intensify the friendly foreign relations.
The minister said the priority of the ministry was to establish new schools and renovate the old ones. “Our main purpose is to ensure the accessibility of education to every one and any help in this regard will boost our morale”, she said.
She further said the ministry had recently established 8,500 new primary schools in which more than seven million children were getting education.
The UAE ambassador said two brotherly countries have strong relations. He said the UAE would assist Pakistan in education sector and invest in the backward areas to promote education. He said investment would be made in areas like Kharan, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Rajanpur and in the coastal areas of Balochistan.
He said the UAE would also assist in renovation of school buildings and provision of furniture. “We have established Sheikh Zaid International School in the capital which will start working in near future,” he said.
NCHD: Federal Minister for Education Zobaida Jalal, while presiding over a meeting with officials of the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) here on Wednesday, stressed the need for expanding education efforts in the backward and remote areas of the country.
The NCHD chairman, Dr Nasim Ashraf, Secretary Education Tariq Farook and other officials of the ministry and the NCHD were also present on the occasion.
The minister said the government was committed to impart education to the every one without any discrimination. She said the ministry would provide every possible help to the Commission regarding the inputs.
She asked the NCHD to include FATA in its project areas. She also emphasized to further improve the infrastructure of skill development projects and adult literacy programme for the socio- economic development.
Ms Zobaida said 5,000 schools had been upgraded by different NGOs in Punjab and stressed for the private-public partnership in this sector, adding, the efforts to ensure the involvement of NGOs in this sector will continue.
Giving the briefing, Dr Nasim Ashraf said the NCHD would start its projects in 12 more districts across the country by June 2003 to educate more than one million children.—APP
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