Daily Times

KARACHI: Senior Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro announced that every girl enrolled in government schools would receive Rs 3,500 from January 29th and the total sum of Rs 950 million would be disbursed through ATM card and Easy Paisa for the academic year 2014-15 scheduled in February 2016.

Talking in a press conference on Wednesday, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that this would be an incentive to increase enrolment and that girls could continue their education without any financial burden.

Nisar Khuhro further said that in the present year 75,000 girls of rural areas from class VI-X would receive Rs 3,500 and the students of urban areas would receive Rs 2,500 stipend for the total of 275,000 girls.

Khuhro believed that providing education to everyone was the motto of the democratic government and he followed the Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan for bringing reforms in schools, so that all the students could learn and acquire proper education in a better environment.

The Telenor Easy Paisa team would distribute the stipends among girls enrolled in government schools from class VI-X and that parents or guardians of the girls enrolled could withdraw the stipend without paying any cash amount, he said.

Khuhro further said, “This year the government of Sindh is distributing stipends among girls through three different ways including SMS for those who have mobile numbers and those who have their last year’s ATM cards can withdraw using the same pin code.”

He said, “We have taken all the necessary measures to ensure that all the girls get their stipend with zero corruption at any level,” adding that approximately 180,000 beneficiaries would receive their stipend through the ATM method as pin codes would be provided to students in their schools by the Reform Support Unit’s team,” and added that those without ATM cards, a pass code and transaction id would be given to their parents or guardians and showing the pass code, transaction id along with the parent or guardian original CNIC, the beneficiary could receive stipend amount from any Easy Paisa shop.

Khuhro said, “The provincial government provided this service free of cost and if anyone asks for money for the withdrawal send their complaint at 8398 by writing ILMI and your complaint.”

The girls’ stipend is an incentive programme launched by the Sindh Government in 2006 to encourage girls to stay in school and the purpose of the stipend was to make sure that girls move on to middle and secondary school instead of dropping out after completing primary school, he said.

The minister said that stipend payments were made through the Post Office previously, but it posed difficulties for parents and there was some scope for misuse so from 2014, the government of Sindh started disbursing funds through ATM cards, a service provided free of cost In replying to a question regarding teacher’s attendance, the minister said that 190,000 teachers have been verified under the bio metric system and the verification process for cancellation of the teachers was already under way.

Nisar Khuhros further disclosed that the ATM cards been given to students in their respective schools was activated within a week’s time and the cash could be withdrawn from any ATM machine, where he requested that the total amount to be withdrawn in one go as charges were applied every time the cash was withdrawn. In case someone lost the pin code, they could contact the help line through 111-345-100.

On the occasion, Reform Support Unit Chief Programme Manager Faisal Ahmed Uqaili also informed that the Education department’s district officers along with Telenor team representatives would be available to guide parents and guardians at respective areas and schools.

Faisal Ahmed further said that the withdrawal of Easy Paisa through Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC), a message would be received on the registered mobile number, which would have the pass code and transaction id for the withdrawal of cash.

Faisal further said that if the parent or guardian did not receive the text message on their registered mobile number then they should send their CNIC number on 422 for Telenor users or 6362 from other networks by writing CNIC space CNIC number.