Karachi, November 16, 2021 – U.S. Consul General Mark Stroh and Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah today inaugurated 77th new high school building in Karachi constructed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP). The newly constructed Government High School Sindhi Jamaat Cooperative Housing Society, Bin Qasim Town in Malir, the 77th new school constructed under the program, offers students and faculty state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science labs, a health room, and a library.
“We believe that true and lasting development, for countries as well as individuals, starts with education,” Consul General Stroh said. “The United States and Pakistan share this belief, and that is why we are committed to expanding our cooperation in education – from primary to post-graduate levels – to further this common goal.”
The USAID Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP) is a $159.2 million award that aims to improve access to and quality of public school education by constructing 106 schools across 10 districts in Sindh in partnership with the government of Sindh. The Government of Sindh’s School Education & Literacy Department (SELD) contributes $10 million as a cost-share.
USAID Deputy Mission Director David Young and USAID Director for Sindh and Balochistan, Andrew Rebold, along with Sindh Secretary of Education Ghulam Akbar Laghari also participated, along with community elders, teachers, students, and parents.
Education Minister Sardar Ali Shah expressed his appreciation for the U.S. Government’s support in modernizing education in Sindh through the province’s ongoing partnership with USAID. Through SBEP, USAID has invested $159.2 million (PKR 25 billion) in school construction in Sindh
SBEP reconstructs schools damaged by the 2010 floods and newly constructs other schools to support the Government of Sindh’s policy of merging, consolidating, and upgrading existing schools. Upon its completion, SBEP will have constructed 106 state-of-the-art schools in the following ten Sindh districts: Dadu, Jacobabad, Karachi-Malir, Karachi-South, Karachi-East, Kashmore, Khairpur, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, and Sukkur.
SBEP also mobilizes communities to increase girls’ enrollment, improve the learning environment and early grade reading, and offer technical assistance to the Government of Sindh. The 106 SBEP schools will serve 80,000 girls and boys. Operations of these schools is being led by private sector Education Management Organizations (EMOs). Public-private partnership agreements between the Government of Sindh and 10 EMOs have been signed, whereby these 10 EMOs will manage 171 public schools, of which 81 are USAID-funded. This includes the Government High School Sindhi Jamaat Cooperative Housing Society, which will be managed by an EMO called Sindh Madarsatul Islam Board.
