The Balochistan government has earmarked Rs 2 billion for out-of-school children to devise a social security programme to provide financial assistance to the poor so that they send their children to schools.
The government has allocated the budget in the financial year 2023-24 to bring massive reforms in the education sector to educate maximum numbers of out-of-school children, an official of the Balochistan government told APP on Friday.
The government would also launch a school enrollment programme to get their children enrolled in schools for reducing the huge number of out-of-school children in the province, he added.
He said the provincial government had already been launched multiple enrollment campaigns across the province to create awareness among the parents try to get them enrolled in educational institutions instead of letting them do laborious jobs. He said that these children were either orphans or belonged to poor families who are compelled to work to support their families.
He said underage labour affected the children mentally, physically and socially. The education department was organizing public gatherings in various cities to create awareness among the masses to enrol their out-of-school children for boosting the literacy rate in the province.
He said the provincial government was especially targeting girls’ education as the situation of female literacy rate was very poor in the province.
He further told that the government was committed to ensure the teachers’ availability in school and every child is in school under the programme of educational emergency. Meanwhile the Balochistan government has established 10 libraries in Quetta and other parts of the province in the out going financial year to encourage the book reading habit among the people, especially youth. The government has allocated fund to provide books to the libraries established in which will be open to public next month, said an official of Balochistan government.
“The project has also been initiated for the renovation and expansion of libraries across the province to also help increase literacy,” the official said. He added that libraries are nurseries that produce leaders, writers, scholars, philosophers, and teachers who serve the nation.
Highlighting the importance of books, he said, libraries will not only encourage book-reading culture among youth but will also prove beneficial in their capacity building. —APP
