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US helping Pak to renovate over 2,000 schools, build 150 new ones: Munter | The United States will work with the Pakistan government to renovate over 2,000 schools and build 150 new ones over the next two years as part of its efforts to improve education in Pakistan, US ambassador Cameron Munter has said. Responding to an article in a leading American newspaper
implying that the US had failed to contribute towards strengthening education
in Pakistan, Munter said that since 2002, Washington has provided nearly 640 million
dollars for the betterment of education, benefiting more than 900,000 students.
"Our Access English micro scholarships programme provides English-language instruction
and a chance for a better future to more than 5,000 economically disadvantaged
Pakistani students every year," the envoy said in a letter to The New York Times.
"In higher education, we are investing some $20 million a year in Fulbright scholarships
to bring Pakistani students to colleges and universities in the United States.
Our Access and Fulbright programs in Pakistan are the largest in the world," he
added. Munter pointed towards the 7.5-billion-dollar Kerry-Lugar aid while countering
the newspaper's correspondent Nicholas Kristoff's claims that the US had allocated
large amount of military aid to Pakistan but not for educational institutions.
"The Kerry-Lugar legislation, which authorizes $7.5 billion in assistance over
the next five years, represents our unmistakable commitment to engagement and
partnership with the Pakistani people. We are hard at work every day providing
just the kind of hope and opportunity that, as Mr. Kristof so cogently argues,
is the best antidote to the hateful and violent ideology of Osama bin Laden and
his ilk," the envoy said. In his column, Kristof had said, "It helps that the
United States has approved the Kerry-Lugar-Berman package to provide civilian
aid, earning the U.S. a dose of goodwill in Pakistan. But most important, members
of Pakistan's emerging middle class are stepping up to the plate." "They are enraged
at the terrorists who have been tearing apart their country, they're appalled
by corruption and illiteracy, and they want peace so that their children can become
educated and live a better life. Their obsession is college, not Kashmir," added
the columnist.
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