Ehsaas initiative

This refers to Dr Sania Nishtar’s press conference regarding the Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship Programme. She stated that this scholarship will accommodate 200,000 students, including 50 percent girls, from low-income backgrounds for four years through providing them full tuition fee as well as living stipends.

This is indeed a laudable initiative of the PTI government to help students, especially those who are unable to afford a college education. However, I have three comments. The first is that without ensuring that people get jobs after graduation, it will only be a waste of taxpayers’ money and discouragement for the graduates. A young lady who is a GIK University graduate and works as a trainee in our office, mentioned that even after one year only 75 percent to 80 percent of her peers are able to get jobs. She also shared that women make 70 percent of Pakistan’s medical students but very few enter as professionals. Only 23 percent of the registered doctors are females. This has serious implications on our health system. So it is imperative that scholarships are limited to those professions that lead to jobs as well as meet the market demand. Second, scholarships should focus on Technical and Vocational Education and Training. There is a major shortage of well trained mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, welders, masons, tailors, cooks, gardeners, etc. Third, the focus of all governments, past and present, on agriculture has been inadequate to say the least. Pakistan should be a major food exporting country. Instead, it has to import food including cooking oil, causing a major burden on our foreign exchange reserves. Through the Ehsaas Scholarship Programme, students should be encouraged to join colleges and universities that teach agriculture and rural development.

Syed Hussein El-Edroos

Islamabad