Ehsaas introduces ‘conditional cash transfer’ for SSC students
Zubair Qureshi
Ehsaas board meeting has approved the first of its kind Ehsaas’ secondary education conditional cash transfer programme for deserving households to send their children to secondary schools.
Children of underprivileged households will be provided conditional cash grants of Rs. 2,500 for boy child and Rs 3,000 per quarter for girl child on fulfillment of 70% attendance in school. All payments will be biometrically made to mothers of children.
This was decided in the board meeting chaired by Dr Sania Nishtar. The programme will be rolled out nationwide across all districts w.e.f July.
The programme will be implemented in close coordination with provincial education departments to avoid double dipping and duplications.
The ‘Demographic and Health Survey 2017’ (Kaplan and Meier estimates) indicates that dropout rate is highest for the poorest two quintiles in secondary education.
Further, the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (1990-2018) featuring enrolment trends for both boys and girls in primary and secondary education reveals that girls are severely disadvantaged in initial enrolment levels for poorest quantile, and they drop out faster from grades 5-8.
Chairing the board meeting, Dr. Nishtar stated, “Ehsaas aims to lift the poorest families in Pakistan out of poverty and help them achieve their potential by serving the unserved area of secondary education.
Part of ‘Post-Covid-Ehsaas Strategy’, secondary education CCT will enable those at the bottom of the pyramid to overcome financial barriers in accessing secondary education.
