KARACHI, Aug 26: As many as 11 contracts for school improvement were awarded to eight districts of Sindh and Balochistan on Thursday under the Educational Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) programme of the USAID.

The grants for district schools' improvement were formally handed over to the concerned nazims or their representatives by the US ambassador to Pakistan, Nancy Powell, who was chief guest at a ceremony held here for the purpose. Balochistan Minister for Education Maulana Abdul Wahid Siddiqui and federal Education Secretary Sajid Hasan were among those who were present on the occasion.

ESRA chief Suzanne Olds, speaking on the occasion, said that the first recipients of the grants would get a total of Rs37.54 million as financial support for the implementation of their improvement plans with regard to teachers' training, revitalization of non-formal schools, monitoring and evaluation systems, access to schools in rural areas, overall strengthening of education department, etc.

The districts selected for the first phase of the release of grants included Naushki, Chagai, Kech, Gwadar and Qilla Saifullah in Balochistan; and Hyderabad, Khairpur and Sukkur in Sindh.

The USAID funding is meant for the projects designed to be completed in 12 to 18 months and the district administrations would have to ensure further funding from their respective exchequer after completion of the projects.

Addressing the participants of the ceremony, Nancy Powell appreciated the efforts put in by the government at different levels towards an improvement in educational standard.

She mentioned that district improvement grants would make it possible for officials to make the kind of improvements that could bring children to schools and keep them enrolled, besides ensuring that their parents were keenly involved in their education.

She stressed the need for bringing changes in classroom in order to increase enrolment level and reduce drop-out rate. "An improved monitoring and supervision can make sure that children have teachers in the classrooms all day," she observed.

She said that US government and other donors would be closely watching the results of this programme to see what impact it was having in terms of student retention, girls' enrolment, decline in teachers' absence and ultimate improvement in students' performance.

"We want to see the ground improvement and hope for a brighter future for children in Pakistan," she added. The US ambassador described the plan as 'exciting' and said that the USAID grant, first of its kind, was being handed over directly to district governments.

Each of the projects, she said, would be posted on the website of the USAID in Pakistan. In addition to education, the USAID programme covered the fields of health, micro-financing and water & sanitation.

Speaking on the occasion, Maulana Abdul Wahid said that Balochistan was faced with a host of problems in education sector. These problems, he added, could be overcome through concerted efforts to be made at community, district,province and federal levels.

We should ensure an appropriate utilization of funds made available for bringing about an improvement in the sector, keeping aside our own liking or disliking. This, he said, would in turn give us educated and honest citizens.

The chief technical officer of ESRA, Mr F. Henry Healey, said that the ESRA basically stood for empowerment of people so that they could came up with their own solutions to the problems pertaining to school improvement.

Mr Sajid Hasan said that the USAID would be providing a total of US$100 million to help improve the quality of primary schools in the country. Talking to Dawn after the ceremony, Noorul Haq Kakar, the EDO Finance of Chagai district, said his district had received a grant of Rs3.8 million under the programme.

The grants given to Gwadar, Qilla Saifullah and Khairpur districts would be utilized to strengthen monitoring and supervision of schools and teachers whereas the Hyderabad district administration intends to improve quality of education and the facilities pertaining to girls' access to schools.