Baligh ur Rehman inaugurates phase I of a Dubai Cares Project

Lahore: The Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training, Muhammad Baligh ur Rehman inaugurated phase I of a Dubai Cares Project undertaken by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) to renovate and rehabilitate government schools. The inauguration ceremony took place at Government Girls Primary School, Haji Muhammad in Bahawalpur.

While speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Minister Baligh ur Rehman appreciated the support being provided by Dubai Cares and the work being done by ITA, urging for the expansion of the project.

The Minister also stated that the government has increased spending on provision of missing facilities. He further added that for Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif this is an issue of top priority.

EDO Bahawalpur, Bashir Ahmed congratulated ITA and Dubai Cares for starting this commendable project and stated that they would have full support of the district education team.

Dubai Cares has been working extensively in Pakistan, reaching out to 4028 schools and 1,035,300 beneficiaries since 2008. Currently 26 Government Girl’s primary/ elementary schools have been identified and adopted under the Dubai Cares Project to fill in the gap for missing facilities in the district of Bahawalpur alone. Similar constructions for physical rehabilitation and improvement of girls’ schools (primary/elementary/high with primary sections) will be conducted in 14 other districts of Punjab; Balochistan and Sindh.

With this project, ITA hopes to ensure that girls in these schools have access to functional classrooms, working toilet blocks and clean water. Other elements of this component include a boundary wall for each school, learning materials, furniture and para teachers; all of which are important for enhancing children’s learning capacity, developing interest in learning, inquiry based approaches and improving the overall classroom environment.

Teachers, head teachers and school councils will also be provided with quality inputs for learning, ECE, Primary subjects, accelerated learning method under ChaloParhoBarho (CPB) hygiene, life skills and environmental education.

Deputy Director Programs, Imtiaz Ahmed Nizami, while introducing the scope of the project said: “As a result of renovation/rehabilitation in existing school premises, ITA will ensure that parents will be more encouraged to send their daughters to functional schools and the School Education Department will be formally more responsive to sustaining the improvements undertaken.”

At the inauguration ceremony, Education Youth Ambassadors (EYAs) affiliated with ITA under the Right to Education Pakistan campaign were also present. The youth group presented the 2 million signatures collected by ITA for the #UpForSchool and End Child Marriages petition from all over Pakistan to Minister, Baligh ur Rehman.