PRESENT government’s flagship Ehsaas programme aimed at uplifting the marginalized segments of the society is witnessing expansion and that too at an accelerated pace under the supervision of Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar who indeed is working tirelessly to make this programme a success story. The programme has already got recognition at the world level.
In what could be called a very significant addition to Ehsaas programme, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday launched School Stipend scheme to provide financial assistance to deserving households for the education of their children up to the higher secondary level.
Rolled out nationwide in 160 districts, the program has been structured to give a higher amount of stipend to girls as compared to boys. This indeed will help increase the ratio of female students in the educational institutions.
Already about twenty million children are reported to be out of school. Providing incentives to the deserving households will really go a long way to bring these children to schools.
Though all the programmes being executed under the umbrella of Ehsaas have their own significance, but the ones relating to education scholarship carry immense importance because promotion of education is the only way through which the people can be lifted out of poverty.
We are confident that this programme will also be executed in the most transparent manner and the stipend will reach the most deserving families.
We will suggest that the quarterly stipend for the primary level students should be at least three thousand rupees whilst for the secondary and higher secondary it should be four and five thousand rupees respectively.
And with the passage of time, it should be increased so that the deserving students can get education with complete sense of contentment.
At the same time, the government should not delay the launch of Kamyab Pakistan Programme which was aimed at providing interest free loans, health cards and housing facilities to poor families both in the rural and urban centres.
This will go a long way to financially empower the lowest income groups and also help in generating economic activity in the country.
