TCF, IBA Sukkur to run 20 schools built under USAID’s programme

The Sindh government and education management organisations (EMOs) signed agreements at a ceremony held at the Chief Minister House on Wednesday to operate 20 schools constructed under the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP).

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and USAID Deputy Mission Director for Sindh and Balochistan John Smith-Sreen and Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah witnessed the signing ceremony, said a statement issued here.

Secretary School Education Qazi Shahid Pervaiz and two selected EMOs, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and The Citizens Foundation (TCF), inked the agreements to manage these schools for a period of 10 years.

The TCF will manage 11 newly constructed schools while the Sukkur IBA will manage nine schools. Currently, the construction of 47 schools have been completed out of which 23 schools have already been handed over to six EMOs and 20 additional schools are awarded through this signing ceremony. The construction of the remaining schools is in process.

The TCF will also manage eight priority schools under the district package of Dadu and Qamber-Shahdadkot. The Sukkur-IBA University will also manage 17 priority schools under the district package Sukkur and Larkana.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the US government through USAID was contributing $159.2 million and the Sindh government was also providing a $10 million share for the SBEP.

He added that the project was aimed at increasing and sustaining student enrollment in primary, middle, and secondary public schools in selected areas of the province with a special focus on bringing back girls who had dropped out of schools.

The chief minister said that in addition to constructing schools, the SBEP would also support the government’s reforms in education, school consolidation, merging and upgrading, community mobilisation, public-private partnerships and improving reading competencies of students in schools.

John Smith-Sreen emphasised the US government’s commitment to supporting education in Pakistan. Shah appreciated the USAID-SBEP and the US government’s strong support for modernising education in Sindh. He added that the provincial government was the pioneer in launching public-private partnership (PPP) reform by outsourcing the operations and management of public sector schools for a period of 10 years to EMOs under concession agreements.

The USAID’s SBEP is constructing up to 118 modern school buildings in nine districts in northern Sindh. These are in Dadu, Jacobabad, Kamber-Shahdadkot, Kashmore, Khairpur, Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Ghotki and five towns of Karachi - Bin Qasim, Gadap, Keamari, Lyari, and Orangi.