400 students await scholarship funds

Finance Ministry yet to pay HEC he Rs5.6 billion required to send 400 students abroad on scholarships.

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry has yet to pay Higher Education Commission (HEC) the Rs5.6 billion required to send 400 students abroad on scholarships.

These students had been nominated by HEC to pursue higher studies in foreign universities on the government’s expenditure.

However, since the Finance Ministry has released only Rs1.1 billion against the demand of Rs6 billion, the later is unable to send the students abroad.

The initial protests and boycott by teachers was called off a few days ago when the government accepted (in principle) the list of demands by university students, including the sanction of funds for these 400 students.

Talking to The Express Tribune, HEC spokesperson Ayesha Ikram said that they were not in a position to send over 400 fresh students abroad, even though these students had gotten admission in
good international universities

However, she assured that, “Students already in the middle of their studies will not be abandoned, the HEC will manage to fund them one way or another.”

When contacted, Finance Secretary Salman Siddiq refuted reports that the government would not grant scholarships to students who had been freshly nominated for higher studies in foreign universities.

“Each and every scholarship is secure and we will provide required funds to all students,” he asserted.

Siddiq said that a committee has already been constituted and will be headed by Chairman Planning Commission to oversee the HEC affairs. This committee aims to ensure the release of required funds.

Siddiq confirmed that the finance ministry had already released Rs1.1 billion and the remaining Rs.5.6 billion would be released in phases.

“Financial management is the responsibility of our finance division and we will not release funds to a department just so that they can keep it in their bank accounts,” he remarked.

Siddiq said that the scholarships and 50 per cent increase in salaries of university employees would also be ensured at all costs.

In the recent wave of country wide protests been held by teachers, they had demanded that funding to the education sector be increased. Successive cuts in the HEC’s funding had been received as a threat to the future of Pakistani education. The immediate interests of the teachers had been this 50 per cent increase in their salaries, which was earlier ensured and is still being promised by Siddiq.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2010.