Bus library by USAID cultivates love of learning among students: Tariq

ISLAMABAD, Nov 16 (APP):Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry Thursday said bus library project funded by USAID has helped not only cultivate love of learning among the students but also created healthy environment in schools.
While addressing the ceremony of handing over mobile library by the USAID to Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) at Islamabad Model School F-7/1, Minister said this colorful bus has visited 338 school and reached 65,000 children in Islamabad and Sindh.
The USAID funded Pakistan Reading Project being implemented by IRC is helping improve reading skills of children across Pakistan.  The mobile bus library is another step towards promoting a reading culture in Pakistan, he remarked.
Minister thanked the U.S. Government for their continued support to raising standards in Pakistani education.
Dr Christopher Steel, Director Education USAID (Pakistan) said, The Pakistan Reading Project, implemented by the International Rescue Committee, is running a mobile bus library programme in Sindh and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from the last two years and brought reading materials directly to communities and help re-establish reading habits.
Trained librarians onboard each bus will conduct story-telling sessions in each community they visit. They will also issue books for schoolchildren to take home to read. He added.
He said, after each visit, the libraries leave behind the set of book so that children can continue to read, So far, these mobile libraries have distributed 53,479 books during these visits.
Chief of Party for USAID, Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) Naeem Sohail Butt and DG Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Hasnat Qureshi, signed the transfer agreement of mobile bus library programme.
In the ceremony Dr Christopher Steel, Director Education USAID (Pakistan) handed over the key of bus to Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.
Principal Islamabad Model School F 7/1 Shabnum Afreen thanked Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Dr Christopher Steel, Director Education USAID (Pakistan),DG Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Hasnat Qureshi and Chief of Party for USAID, Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) Naeem Sohail Butt.