PESHAWAR: The United States government contributed about four billion dollars in direct development assistance to Pakistan since 2009 of which 25 per cent came to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, said Raymond W. Stephens, the public affairs officer at US Consulate General at Peshawar.

“One of the largest projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone is a seven-year school reconstruction programme started in 2009,” he told Dawn during an exclusive discussion on various programmes, the US government was contributing to through USAID and state department.

Half of the 222 schools were destroyed by militancy while the remaining were affected by natural disasters. It is expected that 222 schools will be reconstructed in the province out of which 81 has been completed so far.

The US official said that 170 schools were refurbished in Malakand for the internally displaced person in 2010-2011. He said that the US government was concentrating more on infrastructure development through USAID while the projects of state department were focused on exchange programmes and professional capacity building.

Says 34,000 schoolteachers in province and 5,000 in tribal areas will be trained under reading project

One of the big schemes is ‘Pakistan reading project’ that was launched last year to improve quality of reading in schools. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 34,000 primary schoolteachers would be trained in 9,000 schools. Under the programme, 215 teachers would be awarded scholarships. It would also help to set up 100 libraries in the province.

Through the same programme, some 5,000 schoolteachers in 1,300 public schools would be trained in Fata. The programme offers 32 scholarships for teachers in Fata. Besides, 15 libraries will be set up in 319 schools.

The USAID also provided scholarships to more than 7,000 students, affected by disasters and extremism, to help them complete education in the province. The USAID had been providing scholarships to the students of bachelor and master degrees since 2004 on the basis of merit and need, Mr Stephens said.

The official said that of 1,800 scholarships, awarded so far, half were given to women candidates. The students are financially helped to study in five major public sector universities including Khyber Medical University.

“In September this year, USAID decided to put additional $23 million dollars for 3,000 more scholarships in Pakistan,” said the official. He hoped that more students would take interest in applying for the scholarships. He said that all the relevant information was available on the website and Facebook page of the US Embassy, Islamabad.

Talking about projects in Fata, Mr Stephens said that USAID reconstructed about 58 schools with 20,000 enrolled students. Some 800 teachers of Fata schools were also trained under a four-year programme.

The official said that the US government through its exchange programmes also achieved a lot of success. “The US Fulbright Exchange Programme is in fact the largest one in Pakistan. During the last eight years, 161 students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata alone have benefited from this programme,” he said.

To a question regarding general perception about the US in Pakistan, the official said that he recognised that the US had an image problem. The US government worked every day to combat that image problem, he added.

“When I talk to Pakistanis, they are very warm and receptive to the US. I guess most of them are surprised to hear the work we are doing here. They just don’t know,” said the US official.

He hoped that more coverage of the projects in media could help to dispel the misperception.

Published in Dawn, November 19th , 2014