Qian Tang Assistant Secretary General (Education) of Unesco met Baleegh-ur-Rehman Minister of State for Education Training and Standards in Higher Education and discussed with him the modalities for the operationalisation of Malala Fund for Girls' right to education.
The meeting was attended by Ahmed Baksh Lehri, Secretary Education Training and Standards in Higher Education, Ms Hayashikawa (Unesco Paris), Dr Kozue Kay Nagata, (Director Unesco Pak), Roshan Chitrakar (Unesco Pak). The representatives proposed that improvement in the quality of education of girls should be the central focus of activities undertaken by Unesco from this fund. It was also proposed that a few model school, technical and vocational training centers for girls can be established from this fund.
The minister urged the need for attracting more donors globally for Malala Fund geared towards girls, education. He also emphasised the need of reduction in operational and transactional costs. The fund would be used in line with current government policy on education called, (National Action Plan) which has been finalised by the Federal Government and has been sent to provinces Fata,G-B etc and their response is awaited.
About 80 per cent of the fund would be used for formal education and 20 per cent would be used to support non formal education like BECS and NCHD. The areas for that fund have been identified as Balochistan, Interior Sindh, Southern Punjab, KPK, Fata, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.-PR