300 new private schools established in rural areas

Karachi:The Promoting Private Schooling in Rural Sindh (PPSRS) Project was launched in 2008-09 and the first two phases have seen establishment of 300 new private schools across 10 districts of rural Sindh, a spokesperson Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) said in a press release issued on Wednesday.

The PPRS per-student subsidies are provided to private entrepreneurs to set up and operate coeducational primary schools in underserved rural communities in disadvantaged districts, he further said.

These schools also avail teachers’ training, textbooks, and learning materials. The third phase of the Project was recently launched which would add 700 additional schools to the PPRS portfolio, he added.

The impact evaluation was carried out across 100 project schools by a team comprising researchers from the World Bank, Columbia University, and the RAND Graduate School, he mentioned.

The impact evaluation followed an experimental design, allowing the team to identify the average causal effect of the programme on school participation and achievement. The research findings show remarkable contribution of the Project in terms of increasing access to and the quality of educational models, SEF spokesman said.

PPRS schools have drawn nearly all young children into school increasing the share of children that go to school by 29 percentage points. Moreover the

cost-effectiveness of the PPRS Project in increasing school participation is one of the highest amongst all rigorously evaluated programmes in the developing world, he claimed.

According to the statement issued, the current cost of the programme is roughly Rs7,000 per student per year. The project has produced large gains in child achievements especially in learning of mathematics and local language, he further claimed.

With the milestone achievement, PPRS project are yet another feather in SEF’s cap. The results are highly encouraging and evidence that with support from grassroots and the government alike the initiative will continue to grow from strength to strength, he further said.

The Project is supported by the World Bank and European Union through their results-based loans to the province, he added.The news.