A delegation of DFID calls on MD PEF Tariq Mahmood

Lahore: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has achieved many milestones of success by introducing valuable interventions in the school education sector.  The foundation has encouraged and helped the private entrepreneurs for setting up schools in areas where poorest of the poor dwell so that the kids may study in nearby schools. This facility has motivated the needy communities to send their children to these schools. The education of the needy students is funded by the PEF so as to save them from the educational expenses. This has helped the low income families, mostly living in remote and far flung areas, to access free schooling facility for their kids.

MD PEF Tariq Mahmood said this while meeting with a nine-member delegation of Department for International Development (DFID) at his office on Wednesday. The DFID delegation was led by Senior Education Advisor and Policy Lead Ms. Barbara Payne.

MD PEF briefed the delegation about role and expansion of different public private based educational programs to meet the educational needs of the impecunious strata. He told that PEF has helped in improving equitable access to schooling, especially in southern districts where 67 percent of the partner schools are situated, while 69 percent of the 1.9 million PEF students belong to the southern Punjab. We are also working to provide quality education through teachers’ certification programs as well as encouraging the students to take part in co curricular activities. Provision of quality education is our priority as we want to develop best leaders of tomorrow through the partner schools, he added.

DFID’s Barbara Payne appreciated the efforts of the foundation in education- promotion. Education Advisor Javed Malik lauded the hard work and commitment of the students of remote and less developed areas where PEF sponsored schools are the ray of hope for low income families. He also shared his experience of meeting with some of the devoted souls in Muzaffargarh district and said that their sheer commitment towards education is most worthwhile.

Earlier, different PEF programs directors briefed the meeting about their program’s performance.