Education support programme for girls launched in merged districts

PESHAWAR: The Elementary & Secondary Education Department (E&SED), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have launched an education support programme for adolescent girl students in merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The pilot project aims to provide income support to families of adolescent girls so that they are able to meet their food and nutrition needs during Covid-19 and continue their schooling. Under this programme, nearly 21,000 girls between grade 6 and 10, enrolled in 288 government girls’ high schools in all the seven merged districts and six sub-divisions will be assisted. The project was launched by the Education Minister, Akbar Ayub Khan and WFP Pakistan Representative & Country Director, Chris Kaye, at the Committee Room of E&SED. “We are initiating this pilot project with the support of World Food Programme, envisioning a large-scale provincial cash stipend programme where every enrolled child will be assisted with financial assistance,” said the minister. He said that it is the priority of the provincial government to ensure that all out-of-school children are encouraged to attend school as more than 1 million children of age 4-14 years are out of school in the merged districts and 67 percent of the population is unable to read or write (with the figure rising to 87 percent for women).