US Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped establish a state-of-the-art elementary school, with funds worth 80 million rupees, at village Ghulam Hussain Gadehi in Taluka Johi, District Dadu.
A project by the Sindh Basic Education Program, the school was inaugurated by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) legislator from Dadu, Johi Rafiq Ahmed Jamali, on Sunday.
The school building was handed over to The Citizens Foundation (TCF) under its agreement signed with USAID officials in a ceremony in a village, some 12 kilometres away from Dadu.
PPP member of National Assembly (MNA), Rafiq Ahmed Jamali, and member of Provincial Assembly (MPA), Syed Ghulam Shah Jilani, also witness the signing of the agreement.
MNA Rafiq Jamali spoke on the occasion and noted that it was a good opportunity for the children of Taluka Johi who could now benefit from the equipment of scientific and computer laboratories and furniture in this school building.
He hailed it as a state-of-the-art building.
Sindh Basic Education Senior Manager of Planning, Monitoring and Evolution, Tariq Masaood Qureshi, senior manager, observed that USAID had constructed a total of 106 schools buildings in seven districts of Sindh at a cost of USD 81 million.
129000 students had been enrolled in these schools from primary to secondary level during the last five years, he maintained.
Qureshi said that 12 additional school buildings would be constructed in Ghotaki and Shikarpur districts of Sindh, this year.
USAID Sindh Community Mobilization Senior District Manager, Khadim Hussain Soomro, addressed the occasion and asserted that the agency had helped construct 11 school buildings in far-flung areas of Dadu district over the last five years.
Talking about the capacity of these buildings to endure high temperature, disasters, floods, earthquakes and lightning, he added that these schools had been handed over to TCF in Dadu district. The schools were said to be monitored by the Sindh government’s education department.