School Education Department, South Punjab, and United Nations International Chil-dren’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve quality education access to the unprivileged here on Friday. UNICEF Chief Field Officer Will-broad Nigambi and Secretary SED South Punjab, Rana Saleem Ahmad Khan, signed an MoU at Education Secretariat. On this occasion, Additional Secretary Schools Agha Zaheer Abbas Shirazi, Deputy Secretaries, Saifullah Khan, Muhammad Faisal Shahzad, Nauman Ghani, Sabahat Ambreen, Tufail Ahmed, and Rubina Nadeem from UNICEF witnessed the signing ceremony. Speaking on this occasion, Willbroad Nigambi, Chief Field Officer UNICEF, said that according to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI), Pakistan is a known ‘envi-ronmental hotspot’, and a country where children are considered to be at the greatest risk of the effects of climate change. He informed that UNICEF was addressing the issue of climate change, promoting sanitation and continue its efforts for providing easy access to quality education for children in flood-hit areas of Pakistan. The delegation was apprised of the ongoing educational activities and development schemes under the SED South Punjab and inquired about the problems. Secretary of School Education South Punjab Rana Saleem Ahmed Khan said that education was the basis of peaceful, prosperous, and stable societies, equipping the re-gion of South Punjab with peace, education, welfare, and development was the motto of the Punjab Secretariat. The SED will ensure the right of easy access to quality education with the technical support of UNICEF. The Secretary while informing the UNICEF delegation said that the members of the transgender community were among the backward sections of society and the doors of formal education have always been closed to them adding that the Trans Educa-tion Project has been launched to educate this community. —APP
