AJK President vows to transform liberated territory into a hub of knowledge

MIRPUR (AJK): The Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the Read Foundation, an education-focused organization is doing a great national service in AJK by setting up a network of low-fee educational institutions to provide quality education to school-age children and complementing the government’s efforts to enhance overall literacy in the state.

“In the 26 years since its inception, the Read Foundation has established high-quality educational institutions in remote areas of AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, where it has helped the public sector in raising the literacy rate and also served as a role model for other organizations working in the education sector for which we are grateful to the management and the thousands of teachers associated with this organization.”, AJK President office said on Thursday.

He expressed these views while talking to a delegation led by Sohail Hassan, Head of Digital Media of the Read Foundation and comprising Foundation's Fundraising Manager, Imran Aziz and Regional Manager Sheikh Mazhar.

The delegation apprised the President about the educational institutions being run by the Foundation, quality of education, the evidence-based academic performance of students and special efforts regarding the education of destitute and vulnerable children and the standard of school buildings and facilities available in them to provide a conducive learning environment to the students.

While appreciating the efforts of the Read Foundation, the President said that it was very gratifying that the Read Foundation is providing quality education to thousands of children, especially orphans by receiving very low fee and helping the government to achieve the target of education for all.

AJK President said he was especially happy to note that Read Foundation had provided jobs to over 5000 educated youth by inducting them as teachers and in this way it has been playing an important role in ending unemployment in the liberated territory.

He directed the management of the organization to continue their efforts for further expansion of their school network and improvement of the quality of education.

President Sardar Masood Khan further said that he was also very happy to know that the first twenty positions in the recent board examinations were grabbed by the students studying in the institutions run by the Read Foundation. This is an extraordinary performance that we sincerely appreciate, he added.

President Khan offered all kind of cooperation to the Read Foundation and vowed to transform the liberated area into a hub of knowledge with public-private collaboration in the education sector.

Earlier, the head of the Read Foundation delegation, Sohail Hassan informed the President that after starting its operation in the education sector in 1994, the Read Foundation had worked day and night and succeeded in establishing a network of 390 educational institutions in AJK and GB over a period of 26 years and imparted education to over 100,000 children.

He said that the foundation provided an education-friendly environment to the students by constructing buildings of 140 educational institutions in collaboration with philanthropists at home and abroad.

He said that there are 12,000 orphans and vulnerable children in the educational institutions run by the Read Foundation and we are spending Rs. 360 million annually on their education.

The delegation further informed that at present, The Read Foundation is running 72 primary schools, 172 middle schools, 99 high schools, 45 intermediate colleges and 2-degree colleges in the state with a total enrollment of 112,000 students.

Saying that the student enrolled in the Read Foundation schools are being provided modern and quality educational facilities, the members of the delegation added that the percentage of boys and girls in educational institutions run by their Foundation is 53% and 47%, respectively.