UAE opens 40 schools in Pakistan

Upon the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Project to Assist Pakistan has completed 40 world-class schools and institutes and handed them over to the local authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Nearly 21,000 boys and girls have already started classes. A grand opening ceremony was held at one of the boys’ schools in the presence of Abdullah Khalifa Al Ghafli, Director of the Project, Major General Zahir Shah, Commander of the GOC 45th Engineers Division of the Pakistani Armed Forces, a group of Pakistani army commanders and senior government officials. Al Ghafli and the senior accompanying civilian and military officials unveiled the memorial plaque declaring the official opening of the school and then paid tribute to Shaikh Khalifa for the grant which constitutes a necessary, qualitative addition for improving and upgrading the education sector infrastructure in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. They also toured the school building where they inspected classes, scientific and computer laboratories, sports facilities and other support services.They also met the school principal and teaching and administrative staff. Al Ghafli also opened another school for girls and toured its various sections. The Project, which focuses on four major sectors: ‑ education, public health, roads and bridges‑ comes within the framework of the efforts by the UAE to help Arab and Islamic countries as one of the leading donors in the field of humanitarian aid and international development around the world. A batch of school bags were also distributed to the students as part of an Emirati School Bags project for the benefit of Pakistani students in different locations around the country with a target of 30,000 school bags. Al Ghafli said that Shaikh Khalifa’s directives have also resulted in the building and rehabilitation of 53 schools and colleges at a cost of $27.634 million (Dh101.41 million) to accommodate between 25,000-28,000 students. Al Ghafli also announced the start of implementation of Shaikh Khalifa’s directives which include building two model schools, one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the other in south Waziristan at a cost of $500,000 for each school.from gulfnews.com