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United States Agency for International Development
Presently, our program has benefited approximately 4,777 schools,
367,555 students and 15,198 teachers, primarily in Pakistan’s remote and
under-served areas.
To increase the impact of the ESR efforts, we raised the target num-
ber of schools to be improved in nine districts of Balochistan and Sindh
to more than 9,300 with approximately 700,000 pupils. More than 4,300
schools in Balochistan and Sindh will have school improvement plans in
place and more than 4,300 community School Management
Committees are trained to support school activities. In addition, con-
struction of new schools, boundary walls and installation of toilets has
been completed at 234 of these schools, resulting in increased enroll-
ments according to anecdotal information. Improving public schools in
these remote areas attracts students and their parents away from schools
that do not provide a modern education and fail to provide children with
useful opportunities in life.
Two other key elements to ensure increased enrollment and the
improvement in education are teacher training and literacy courses for
parents and community members. Approximately 13,200 teachers
received in-service training in teacher strategies, language, math, science
and social studies. In addition, 574 school administrators were trained.
More than 2,873 literacy centers have opened, and 17,850 men and
women have completed the literacy training where they were enrolled
and attended the entire four-month literacy course. An additional 69,214
illiterates are enrolled in these courses. Community efforts to improve
literacy include textbook drives that netted 80,000 books to be used in
libraries in communities.
An additional 1,315 teachers have participated in the early childhood
project and are teaching in FATA construction project schools to which
47,500 children are benefiting.
Finally, 109 teachers from teacher-training institutions were sent to
the United States for intensive, four-month training in the teaching of
mathematics, science and English as a Second Language. All have
returned to Pakistan and are teaching an estimated 5,000 pre-service
teachers of primary-school-age children.
These teachers and administrators participating in these programs
include ones from some of Pakistan’s most remote areas, which border
Afghanistan and Iran, and from the poorest regions of Sindh, Punjab and
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