World Bank and government to finance Northern Areas education project

The World Bank and the Government of Pakistan have agreed to jointly finance Rs 1,200 million for the second phase of educational development project in Northern Areas for the next five years. The World Bank will contribute 80 percent of the funds while the Government of Pakistan will have to pay 20 percent.
Northern Areas Education Director Shehzada Mohammad Ibrahim told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the first phase of the project was launched in 1998 for five years, which brought tremendous improvement in the education standards in the area.
He said with the help of new education project, a number of new schools and a female elementary college would be constructed besides, establishing a new School Inspection Cell (SIC).
Shehzada said in the second phase, the middle, secondary, and higher secondary level education would be focused as against the first one, in which only primary education was upgraded.
Talking about the future targets, he said that by involving the community, 188 primary schools, 35 middle schools, 20 higher secondary schools and one elementary college building would be constructed in next five years.
He also said that a new well-equipped 'Inspection and Monitoring Cell' would be set up, headed by a deputy director in the directorate and district inspector of schools (DIS) in each district of the NAs.
He said the new department would monitor, evaluate, and inspect the function of schools.
He maintained that in the first phase, 382 primary schools and one girls college were constructed with the involvement of community.
Shehzada said for the first time an Education Management Information System (EMIS) was introduced in the education department in which one technical engineer and 30 other staff were working to update the information on education.
He pointed out that about 430 new posts created and staff capacity building was improved significantly during the period.
Shehzada said in the first phase they have trained 18,772 local community members in School Management System (SMS) for involving the community in the educational development.