0.7m intermediate students ‘to be added’ in Waseela-e-Taleem

The federal government has decided to add intermediate – 11th and 12th standard – students in the Waseela-e-Taleem programme – an educational conditional cash transfer project.

For final approval, the Ehsaas board is due to meet on June 24.

Under the project, the government provides cash grants to children from the poorest families on the attainment of 70 per cent attendance in school. Moreover, the digitisation of the project is aimed at enhancing primary school enrolments and minimising dropouts.

Sources said on Thursday, the Ehsaas Steering Committee has given the approval for the inclusion of higher secondary education in the programme.

With such a development, they added that as many as 700,000 students would get the benefit and the government has planned to allocate Rs5 billion worth of funds for the project in the next fiscal year.

Moreover, the Ehsaas board has summoned its session on June 24 for final approval on the decision. Sources said that after the board’s nod, boys would get worth Rs3,500 cash stipend and girls would get worth Rs4,000 on a quarterly basis.

Elaborating on the cash assistance, they added that students from the 6th to 10th standard would also get the conditional cash assistance from July on a quarterly basis. According to the plan, boys in the above-mentioned class bracket would get worth Rs2,500 cash assistance and girls would get worth Rs3,000 stipend.