The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has launched mobile schooling project for the nomad tribes dwelling in the vast Cholistan desert spreading well over three districts in the Bahawalpur division. Under this project, which is launched in collaboration with the Cholistan Development Authority, ten mobile schools will start working from January 2016. A target of providing free quality education to as many as 10,000 local male and female nomad children has been envisaged.
Chairman, Punjab Education Foundation Engr Qamar Ul Islam Raja said this while addressing the project launch ceremony at Kotanwain Wali in Cholistan on Saturday. State Education Minister Baligh Ur Rehman, MD Cholistan Development Authority Naeem Iqbal Syed as well as local notables attended the ceremony in large numbers. Chairman PEF said that monthly salary, motor bikes as well as petrol facility will be provided to the teachers hired for this project. These teachers will give education to the children of local nomads near to their populace; free textbooks will also be provided to the students. This project is the first of its kind as free quality education will be provided to the students at their doorsteps. He said that PEF is already providing free education to more than six thousand Cholistani students through a network of 75 partnered schools in Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan Districts. He hoped that both the projects will not only promote school education but will also be helpful in alleviating poverty. Raja said that PEF is the largest free education program in the province which has promoted education at the grassroots through its private partners.
Our programs are cost-effective and are helping the private sector to strengthen itself through our useful interventions, he added. Keeping in view the important role of this foundation, the PEF has been tasked to education 2.8 million needy children by 2018. He further said the Punjab government is making all-out efforts to ensure 100 percent enrolment under its three-year 'Parho Punjab, Barho Punjab' program.
Rehman, in his address, lauded the role of PEF in education-promotion. The MD CDA also spoke on the occasion; while locals thanked the foundation for its important contribution to education-promotion in the vast Cholistan desert. They maintained that PEF is a symbol of hope for their next generation which is being taught near to their homes.
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