USAID Distributes Computer Tablets Among Sindh University's B.Ed Students

The United States' Agency for International Development (USAID) has distributed computer tablets through its Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) among the eight meritorious students of Sindh University's Faculty of Education in a ceremony held at vice chancellor's office who have completed their 4-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) program with flying colors

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jul, 2019 ) :The United States' Agency for International Development (USAID) has distributed computer tablets through its Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) among the eight meritorious students of Sindh University's Faculty of Education in a ceremony held at vice chancellor's office who have completed their 4-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) program with flying colors.

Chaired by the SU vice chancellor Prof. Dr. Fateh Muhammad Burfat, the ceremony was attended by the Dean faculty of education, Elsa Kazi Campus Hyderabad Prof. Dr. Saleha Parveen, incharge department of education, University of Sindh Anjum Shaheen, senior teaching training & resource development coordinator, PRP, USAID Sadia Adeeb and manager pre-service & scholarship PRP Saleem Ahmed.

Manager pre-service & scholarship of USAID Pakistan Reading Project Saleem Ahmed briefed the meeting regarding the project and said that it supported training of teachers and improved reading instructions in classrooms.

Vice chancellor Dr. Burfat on the occasion said the distribution of computer tablets was an investment and appreciation of the teaching force that prepared the future of the country.

"Information and communication technology is a vital resource in the effort to extend educational access and to improve the quality of instruction across economic, cultural, geographic and other barriers in the country. PRP is a beneficial project for students of BEd and teachers equally", he added.

He said that he had been briefed by the USAID team that each computer tablet was configured with latest applications, tools and techniques such as teacher training modules, daily lesson plans, virtual mentoring videos and audio lessons which will definitely help passing out students of the varsity to improve their instruction and the literacy skills of children in their classrooms.

He appreciated the USAID initiatives in education sector especially US funded Pakistan Reading Project and congratulated the fortunate students of his university to grab computer tablets on merit.

Dr. Burfat said that it was the age of technology and the use of technology in education was a dire need of the hour. He said that these tabs would help out the teachers to educate the children of class 1 to 5.

He said that mobile libraries established by USAID were very effective and appreciable to develop reading habit among the children.

On the occasion, Sadia Adeeb told that the USAID funded Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) is a $165 million project designed to support provincial and regional departments of education to improve the reading skills of Primary school children across the entire country.

"We provided schoalrship of worth Rs. 1,60000 for 4 years to each meritorious student of BEd program initially from 2011 and the project continued till 2014. Those eight students of faculty of education who proved to be high achievers, we decided to give tablets to them and today, we did it", she said.

She said that the programme was designed to utilise three interrelated components to improve the quality of education in early primary grades that was an improved classroom learning environment for reading, improved policies and systems for reading and community-based support for reading at faculty of education, University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

On the occasion, the vice chancellor Dr. Burfat along with Dr. Saleha Parveen, Anjum Shaheen and Sadia Adeeb gave away computer tablets awarded by USAID to the eight meritorious students of BEd (Hons) Misbah Madad Ali, Sania Haji Madni, Aruba Ishtiaque, Saeed Ahmed Chan, Mahrukh Irfan, Mahnoor Shaikh, Zahra Talib and Dua Khalid.