Scholarship scheme

The Sindh government has earmarked Rs3.5 billion for scholarships under the Sindh Education Endowment Fund for the next eight years. These merit-cum-poverty scholarships are meant for those pursuing higher education in public and private universities in the province and outside of it. This is a fairly large amount and indicates the government’s interest in enabling more and more youth of the province getting higher education. The government is ensuring that meritorious students of limited means are not hampered by their families’ economic circumstances in the pursuit of knowledge.

The SEEF scholarship scheme was introduced in 2002. However, like several other government-sponsored schemes, this too has run into controversies. Students of Karachi University, the largest public-sector university in Sindh, have been included within the scope of the scholarship scheme after a long delay of 19 years. The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology still stays out of the scheme’s compass. It is difficult to say who is to blame for this. Officials maintain that scholarships under the SEEF scheme are provided to only those educational institutions which ask for them. The Federal University has so far not applied for this category of scholarships. Furthermore, only those studying in professional institutions are entitled to these scholarships like the IBA, Karachi, for certain subjects. However, the long exclusion of Karachi University from the stipend plan does not seem convincing as these subjects are also taught at this institution.

Experience shows that bureaucratic red tape and official lethargy might be one of the causes of the unsatisfactory state of affairs pertaining to a well-meaning scheme aimed at promotion of education. Experts say there are some essentials of viable bureaucracy that will serve the needs of a developing country and the most important among them is compassion. Even efficiency is next to compassion. But the public too should consider the practical difficulties the bureaucracy has to face.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2021.

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