United States Consul General Carmela Conroy has said 98 percent of the visa applications from Pakistan are rejected for being supported by fake documents. "Even strong candidates made their cases doubtful by just attaching one fake document to their application, said the US Counsel General while addressing the students of the Government College University Lahore on "the role of the United States for promotion of education in Pakistan.
GCU Dean Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences chaired the lecture organised by GCU Welfare Society. Carmela Conroy revealed that United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had invested over 600million dollar to reform and revitalise Pakistan's education system since 2002. She said that assistance to Pakistan for education went back to 1950s when America provided resources for the establishment of Peshawar University and Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and sent several prominent professors to teach there. She said that US during the last century provided assistance of billions of rupees for establishing and developing hundreds of schools, agriculture universities and research centres in Pakistan.
Addressing the GCU Welfare Society members, Carmela said that she is impressed by the human resource in Pakistan and combined with the incredible physical advantages that Pakistan possesses, rich land, strategic location, ports - there is no reason why Pakistan cannot be an economic and cultural giant. She said that the levels of international assistance to Pakistan can contribute to elevating to development, but it cannot be, and should not be, the main effort. The greater burden lies on the shoulder of Pakistanis. She stressed that Pakistan's independent media and communities should expose the ghost schools, mal-practices and missing facilities.
The US diplomat assured the students that assistance to Pakistan for education would be increased, announcing that over the next two years, they would send 140 journalists, 100 civil servants and 55 legislative staff to their counterparts in the United States to exchange ideas while working.
Carmela also said that that US would invite 100 Pakistani students to spend a semester on the US campuses under the Near East and South Asia Undergraduate Programme. More hundred will be sent to US for one-year technical degree through the Community College Initiative. While another 110 students would be invited to the American High Schools and they will live with the American host families as part of the Youth Exchange and Study Programme.
Carmela also revealed that there are plans to bring up 30 US scholars on the Fulbright Specialist Programme on short term trips to Pakistan to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development and other related programmes. In reply to query about Professional Exchanges, she said that the US has invited 200 Pakistani leaderships on International Visitors Leadership Programme.
She also said that the four-week professional training programme in the US for secondary level educators was doubled from 20 to 40 participants this year. Carmela also announced that they are inviting three English language fellows to Pakistan for training of English teachers in Pakistan.