Girls’ school stipends unpaid for four months
LAHORE:
The provincial government has not paid stipends to around 0.2 million girl students for four months.
Several students from the 15 districts with literacy rates below 40 per cent (including Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur) have complained to their headmistresses that the stipend provided by the provincial government since 2005, have been discontinued. The students have been complaining that since 2008 they have been receiving the money orders with a considerable delay.
The principal of a government school in one of these districts told The Express Tribune that the number of female students was falling owing to the discontinuation of the stipends. She said that she had informed the high ups in this regard but has not received a satisfactory reply. She feared that the drop out rate would increase sharply if the government continued neglecting the issue.
The principal said that stipends had proved an effective incentive to persuade people into sending their daughters to school. “They aren’t otherwise bothered about girls’ education,” she said. Most of the girls who had opted out of schools were now working from their homes to help boost the family income, she said.
Muhammad Asif, the Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme (PESRP) programme director, said that he was unaware of a decision to discontinue stipends.
A PESPR spokesperson, however, said that the stipend payments had been stopped because every government department had to surrender its funds by end March – two months prior to the budget presentation in June. He assured that they would continue the stipends very soon.
He said that initially the programme was launched for students from grade 6 to grade 8 but in 2005 it was extended to cover grade 9 and grade 10 students as well.
The government launched the programme in 2004 to lift the female literacy rates in the 15 districts with below 40 per cent literacy rates. Under the programme, the students were to receive Rs600 per quarter for maintaining an 80 per cent attendance rate.
In 2008, when Shahbaz Sharif was elected chief minister, he continued the programme under the title Public School Girls’ Stipend.
The World Bank has been providing Rs1 billion per annum to the provincial government to fund the project.
The PESPR data highlighted that the enrolment and attendance rate of female students in the selected districts increased from 2005 to 2008. The rates started declining after 2008.
The Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) of the PESPR has appointed district monitoring officers to keep an updated record of the participating schools. They have been employed to update the data of girl students and send regular reports to the head office.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2010.
The provincial government has not paid stipends to around 0.2 million girl students for four months.
Several students from the 15 districts with literacy rates below 40 per cent (including Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur) have complained to their headmistresses that the stipend provided by the provincial government since 2005, have been discontinued. The students have been complaining that since 2008 they have been receiving the money orders with a considerable delay.
The principal of a government school in one of these districts told The Express Tribune that the number of female students was falling owing to the discontinuation of the stipends. She said that she had informed the high ups in this regard but has not received a satisfactory reply. She feared that the drop out rate would increase sharply if the government continued neglecting the issue.
The principal said that stipends had proved an effective incentive to persuade people into sending their daughters to school. “They aren’t otherwise bothered about girls’ education,” she said. Most of the girls who had opted out of schools were now working from their homes to help boost the family income, she said.
Muhammad Asif, the Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme (PESRP) programme director, said that he was unaware of a decision to discontinue stipends.
A PESPR spokesperson, however, said that the stipend payments had been stopped because every government department had to surrender its funds by end March – two months prior to the budget presentation in June. He assured that they would continue the stipends very soon.
He said that initially the programme was launched for students from grade 6 to grade 8 but in 2005 it was extended to cover grade 9 and grade 10 students as well.
The government launched the programme in 2004 to lift the female literacy rates in the 15 districts with below 40 per cent literacy rates. Under the programme, the students were to receive Rs600 per quarter for maintaining an 80 per cent attendance rate.
In 2008, when Shahbaz Sharif was elected chief minister, he continued the programme under the title Public School Girls’ Stipend.
The World Bank has been providing Rs1 billion per annum to the provincial government to fund the project.
The PESPR data highlighted that the enrolment and attendance rate of female students in the selected districts increased from 2005 to 2008. The rates started declining after 2008.
The Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) of the PESPR has appointed district monitoring officers to keep an updated record of the participating schools. They have been employed to update the data of girl students and send regular reports to the head office.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2010.