PESHAWAR, June 27: About 44 Pakistani students will be sent to US under a year-long exchange programme to promote academic and cultural ties between the two countries. The students from Karachi, Hyderabad, Sanghar Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Nowshera, Kohat, Attock, Gilgit, Hunza are leaving for the United States of America in August, a press statement issued from the US Consulate, Peshawar on Tuesday said.

The students, who have been selected from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, will participate in the Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program from August 2006 to June 2007. The Pakistani students will live with an American family and attend high school in their adopted home towns, the statement informed.

Some 43 students from the 2005-06 group also returned back to Pakistan on June 19 this year, after a successful academic year in the USA.

The International Education and Resource Network, Pakistan in collaboration with the Consulate General of United States, Peshawar, organised a reception on Monday to welcome the returning group and launch the new group on this one-year programme in the USA.

The reception was attended by the YES students and their families, school officials from Islamabad, Pindi, Kohat,

Peshawar and Nowshera as well as the organisers from the International Education and Resource Network, the press release said.

The YES students are placed in clusters of two or three in different states all around the USA. They are enrolled in a full academic year of high school study in the US.