Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said the government was focused on providing education to all children across the country and giving incentives to prevent dropouts from schools.

Addressing at the launch of Ehsaas Education Stipends programme here, the prime minister said as over 20 million children in the country were out of schools, efforts were underway to ensure their inclusion in the educational mainstream.

The Ehsaas Education Stipends programme aims at providing financial assistance to the deserving households for the education of their children at primary, secondary and higher secondary levels.

Rolled out nationwide in 160 districts, the programme has been structured to give higher amount of stipend to girls as compared to boys. The prime minister said ensuring education for all was a priority of the government, adding that stipends as incentives would be a step to encourage parents send their children, particularly girls to schools.

He said an educated woman could contribute more positively towards the society and lauded the policy of Ehsaas Stipends programme to give higher amount to girls. Terming educated human resource a great asset for a nation, he said it was important to provide educational opportunities to both boys and girls.

He dismissed the impression in western world that Pakistanis did not want to educate their girls.

He recalled that during his visits to different parts of the country, he found no such parents opposing the right of education for their daughters. However, he said the factors including distant schools or unavailability of female teachers could be a reason.

Imran Khan said it was mainly the responsibility of the government to provide facilities of education to all.

He appreciated that by use of information technology, the stipends would be disbursed transparently after proper checking of fake entries and ghost schools.

PM’ Special Assistant to Social Welfare Dr Sania Nishtar said under the Ehsaas Education Stipends, the primary school boys would get quarterly stipends of Rs1,500 and girls Rs2,000; secondary school boys would get Rs2,500 and girls Rs3,000; and at higher secondary level, boys will get Rs3,500 and girls Rs4,000 a quarter.

She said all education stipends would be paid biometrically to mothers on attainment of 70 percent attendance of their children. She said as part of ‘Post-COVID-Ehsaas Strategy’, Ehsaas Education Stipends would empower the deserving families to overcome financial barriers in accessing higher education.

Poverty is one of the most persistent barriers to acquiring education. Presently, there are 18.7 million children in the age group 6 to 16 who remain out of school in the country and the fall out of COVID-19 has also accentuated it.