KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said on Saturday that his government’s paramount attention to girls’ education in Sindh had yielded positive results, which was evident from the increasing number of girls’ enrolment in remote districts of the province.

He was speaking at a programme at CM House, where the Sindh education and literacy ministry signed agreements with two organisations to manage the first group of schools built under the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Sindh Basic Education Programme.

The management agreements with the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Sukkur and the Charter for Compassion Pakistan applied to four schools in Khairpur and Sukkur districts.

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, US ambassador David Hale, consul general in Karachi Brian Heath and USAID provincial director Craig Buck attended the ceremony.

Mr Shah said his government had launched schemes in Sindh in which girls living in remote areas were being given stipend of Rs2,500 each to encourage their parents to send them to school.

Ambassador Hale said: “Our hope is that working with teachers, staff, and local communities, these new partnerships will introduce innovations, help modernise the education system, and strengthen human resources.”

He added that support for education was one of America’s top priorities in Pakistan.

“USAID is cooperating with Pakistan to carry out Pakistan’s comprehensive education programmes to help millions of children and young adults rise as far in life as their hard work and initiative will take them.”

The audience were told that the Sindh government was forming partnerships with private sector organisations to manage and improve public schools under the Sindh Public Private Partnership Act 2010.

As part of its $155 million contribution to the Sindh Basic Education Programme, USAID is funding the construction and management of 106 schools in Khairpur, Sukkur, Dadu, Qamber-Shahdadkot, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Jacobabad, Larkana and in five towns of Karachi.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2016