15 May 2004	Saturday	24 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, May 14: US ambassador to Pakistan, Nancy Powell, said on Friday that Pakistan educational policy is very much sovereign and indigenous and there is no pressure from the United States in this regard.

She was speaking here in a ceremony held to see off 26 Pakistani teachers leaving for a four months training at the University of Montana.

"US has no role or any kind of pressure on internal education policy of Pakistan and it is very much liberal," she said.

United States is helping Pakistan only in improving educational infrastructure and never put any conditions while giving financial assistance, she said.

Minister for Education, Zobaida Jalal, in her message read on the occasion said Academy for Educational Development (AED) is very much cooperating in training of teachers and hoped that after their return, they will be able to transfer the skills learnt and train more colleagues.

She said the government has fulfilled its promise and commitment by sending school and college teachers to the USA and other developed countries for further state-of-the-art teachers training.

"These teachers will provide an exciting opportunity to create a corps of teaching professionals who will serve as catalysts of change for our country and for building linkages with already established US teachers training colleges and universities", she said.

The teachers would be assessed properly by their respective provincial education departments in their respective subjects upon completion of training from the States.

She maintained that this rare opportunity could be of immense importance not only for the teachers, but also for the entire student community of the country.

Country Director AED, Iqbal Jatoi said that AED would arrange training for 100 more teachers this year in August.-APP