United States will be providing more than 1.5 billion dollars for development projects in social sector in Pakistan during the next five years through USAID, said US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
The programmes include education, health, economic growth and governance, he further said, while inaugurating a primary school for boys at Sur Kamar in Khyber Agency under a programme jointly financed by the government of Japan and the United States in collaboration with the Fata Secretariat on Tuesday.
People of Fata should be proud of their government, which was striving to provide better school facilities for teachers and students of the area, said Stephen Hadley.
Around 400 boys of the Sur Kamar government primary school started classes this year in a new two-storey building with Islamic design features. It was constructed and furnished under the Fata School Reconstruction Programme.
Under this programme, a total of 130 government schools will be reconstructed with the same design in all the seven Fata agencies.
The USAID grant for the programme is 4.7 million dollars and the government of Japan provides grant of 2.5 million dollars. Every school will have classrooms for each grade and a teacher' room. Sanitary and drinking water facilities are added by a grant of $800,000 from the US Department of Defence.
Welcoming the guests, NWFP Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman thanked the US and the Japanese governments for funding the rehabilitation of government schools projects in the Fata.
Terming it a momentous occasion, the Governor said as a result of the co-ordinated efforts the years long backwardness of the tribal areas would be removed.
American ambassador in Pakistan Ryan C. Crocker, American Counsel General in Peshawar Micheal Spinglar, students, teachers, school administration and donor representatives were also present on the occasion.