SUKKUR: Senior Minister for Education Sindh Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said the people of Sindh should not be disappointed because they could overcome their shortcomings by improving literacy ratio. Opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah, MPA Syed Awais Muzaffar, Jam Ikramullah Dharejo, Ex-MPA Dr Nasrullah Baloch, Education Secretary Dr Fazalullah Pechuho and other officials from the Sindh’s education department, as well as teachers, students, and members of the community also attended the ceremony.

He observed this on the occasion of ground breaking ceremony of a new school in Sukkur funded by the USAID under the Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP). USAID Provincial Director for Sindh and Balochistan Mr Leon S. Waskin accompanied the minister.

Mr Khuhro said that today one school was being constructed here in Sukkur with the cooperation of American people and 119 more schools would be constructed in the flood-affected districts of Sindh, including Sukkur, Larkana, Thatta, Dadu, Khairpur, Qambar Shahdad Kot and Jacobabad.

He said the USAID was spending $155 million on these schools while the Sindh government spending $10 million on the project.

About cheating in examinations, he said that all the stakeholders in society, including teachers, parents and students, had to play their role to get rid of the copy culture.

On the occasion, Mr. Leon S. Waskin said Pakistan’s youth were the key to its future, and the key to preparing Pakistan’s youth to create a bright future was education.

The USAID would build 119 other new schools in Sindh as part of the Sindh Basic Education Program. The United States was laying the foundation for a future full of opportunity and success for Pakistan’s young people, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014