The United States Agency for International Development and the Department of Education and Literacy of Pakistan’s Sindh province this month signed a memorandum of understanding to expand USAID’s nationwide ninety-million dollar ED-LINKS program in Sindh province. Also this month, education officials launched two workshops for educators in Karachi and Islamabad as part of the ED-LINKS program.

“This program promises great rewards in Sindh,” said USAID Pakistan Mission Directory Anne Arnes at the signing ceremony. “ED-LINKS projects will improve the teaching skills of more than thirty-thousand teachers in the target districts; provide effective models for school management; and improve the learning environment for more than five-hundred-thousand students.”

The ED-LINK program will be implemented in three-thousand middle and secondary schools in ten Sindh province cities and towns.

ED-LINKS launched its activities in Sindh with a ten-week leadership and management program for one-hundred-twenty-five head teachers at Aga Khan University. In Islamabad, USAID Pakistan Acting Deputy Director Robert Wuertz launched a ten-day workshop on standards-based education. The workshop, conducted under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Education Curriculum Wing, brings together leading authors, textbook writers, subject specialists, and teacher trainers. They will work together to develop strategies for implementing curriculum standards in schools across the nation.

Since 2002, the U.S. Government has provided more than two-billion dollars to Pakistan to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance, and to reconstruct areas affected by the October 2005 earthquake.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte noted, the U.S. seeks to “build a comprehensive partnership not only with the Pakistani government but with the Pakistani people. We recognize that our fate – that is, our security, our freedom, and prosperity – is linked to the fate of the people of Pakistan.”