Sindh govt hands over 20 USAID funded schools to Education Management Organizations

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Wednesday handed over 20 USAID funded schools to Education Management Organizations.

The Sindh government and Education Management Organisations (SEMOs) signed an agreement to operate 20 schools constructed under United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Sindh Basic Education Programme (SBEP).

Under the agreements, Sukkur IBA University will manage nine newly constructed schools and 17 priority schools under district package for Sukkur and Larkana.

The Citizens Foundation (TCF) will manage 11 newly constructed schools and eight priority schools under district package for Dadu and Qamber-Shahdadkot.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, USAID Deputy Mission Director for Sindh and Balochistan, John Smith-Sreen and Provincial Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah witnessed the signing ceremony of concession agreements between the government of Sindh and Education Management Organizations (EMOs) to manage the newly constructed schools under USAID SBEP.

The signing ceremony was held at Chief Minister’s House where senior officials from the US government, the Education Department, SBEP partners and representatives from civil society organisations attended the ceremony.

Secretary School Education Qazi Shahid Pervaiz and two selected EMOs, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA) University and TCF inked the agreements to manage these schools for 10 years.

Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the US government through USAID was contributing $159.2 million, whereas the Sindh government was also providing $10 million cost share for SBEP. He added that the project was aimed at increasing and sustaining student enrollment in primary, middle, and secondary public schools in selected areas of the province, with a special focus on bringing back girls who have been dropped out of schools.

Mr Shah said that in addition to constructing schools, the SBEP would also support the government’s reforms in education, school consolidation, merging and upgrading, community mobilisation, public-private partnerships and improving reading competencies of students in schools.

John Smith-Sreen emphasised the US government’s commitment to supporting education in Pakistan. Syed Murad Ali Shah expressed appreciation for USAID-SBEP and the US government’s strong support in modernising education in Sindh.

He said that the Sindh government was the pioneer in launching Public-Private Partnership (PPP) reform by outsourcing the operations and management of public sector schools for a period of 10 years to Education Management Organizations (EMOs) under concession agreements.

It may be noted that USAID’s SBEP is constructing up to 118 modern school buildings in nine districts in Northern Sindh, including in Dadu, Jacobabad, Kamber-Shahdadkot, Kashmore, Khairpur, Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Ghotki and five towns of Karachi – Bin Qasim, Gadap, Kemari, Lyari, and Orangi. Currently, construction of 47 schools have been completed out of which 23 schools have already been handed over to six EMOs and 20 additional schools are awarded through this signing ceremony. The construction of remaining schools is in progress.