The National Reading Programme was jointly launched at the Government Girls' Primary/Secondary School in Sultanabad in Karachi on Thursday by Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Dr Rajiv Shah and Sindh's Senior Minister for Education and Literacy Department Pir Mazharul Haq.
According to a press release issued on Thursday, the USAID-funded programme consists of three projects - two national and one focused on Sindh - that will help to train teachers, improve reading skills and numeracy and mobilise communities to support school management. It will also increase enrolment of students and ensure student retention, especially of girls. The programme aims to improve literacy and numeracy for nearly seven million children, provide training to over 90,000 teachers in teaching and assessment, and support the development of 3.2 million new readers - including 700,000 children in Sindh.
USAID will also be supporting the school with a reading program under the Sindh Basic Education Program. This programme was started in 2011 and scheduled to last 2016, with a budget of $155 million.
"This is good because it supplements your education budget - a budget that is woefully under-funded. But more importantly it establishes the need for accountability in school administration and management. We are both now accountable to citizens who look to us to be stewards of these resources. We will work together to ensure that they are used correctly on behalf of the students of Pakistan like those sitting here with us today," said Dr Rajiv Shah. The event was attended by the senior officials of the US government, members of Sindh provincial government, representatives of the Sultanabad school and students.