Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is distributing 23,800 computer tablets through its Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) to public school teachers to support training of teachers and to improve reading instructions in classrooms across Pakistan.

“Today’s distribution of computer tablets is an investment and appreciation of the teaching force that prepares the future of Pakistan,” said USAID Mission Director John Groarke according to a statement issued by the embassy on Tuesday.

“We see information and communication technology as a vital resource in the effort to extend educational access and to improve the quality of instruction across economic, cultural, geographic and other barriers in Pakistan.”

State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary and other officials along with the educators joined USAID Mission Director John Groarke at a tablet distribution ceremony.

Each computer tablet is configured with latest applications, tools and techniques such as teacher training modules, daily lesson plans, virtual mentoring videos and audio lessons to help teachers improve their instruction and the literacy skills of children in their classrooms.

The USAID funded Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) is a $165 million project designed to support provincial and regional departments of education to improve the reading skills of primary school children across the entire country.

This programme is designed to utilise three interrelated components to improve the quality of education in early primary grades that is an improved classroom learning environment for reading, improved policies and systems for reading and community-based support for reading in Pakistan. Meanwhile, CADD State Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary said that the federal government is going to hire 2,000 new teachers in capital educational institutions.

While speaking on the occasion, the minister appreciated the USAID initiatives in education sector especially US funded Pakistan Reading Project.

He said that it is the age of technology adding that its use in education is a dire need of the hour. Tariq Fazal said that these tabs would help out the teachers to educate the children of grade 1 and 2.

The state minister said that mobile libraries by USAID are very effective and appreciable to develop reading habit among the children.

He admired the Prime Minister’s Education Transformation Programme to upgrade and develop federal schools for the promotion of education sector in the country.

The minister said that all 422 schools and colleges of the federal capital are being renovated and modernised. The teachers are being inducted in these schools and colleges to confront the need of the educational institutions for quality education, he added. Tariq said that the government would hire the faculty in federal schools, colleges from near by areas aiming to avoid any difficulty for the teachers to come to schools. The minister further said that following the order of Islamabad High Court, the government is committed to resolve the issue of regularisation of the teachers working in different schools of the capital on daily wages. The concerned authorities will make sure the check and balance on the attendance of teachers in capital schools, he added.

He said that the curriculum that is being taught in schools of capital would be updated with the help of the Ministry of Federal Education. The professionals of the Education Ministry and other educational institutions are engaged to accomplish the task for upgrading the curriculum, he added.