MoU signed to provide stipends to deserving college students

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and Sindh college education department on Monday to provide stipends to deserving college students of the province.

The MoU was signed at the office of the Sindh college department secretary by Sindh Colleges Director General Ghulam Mustafa and Naveed Akbar, the director general Waseela-e-Taleem, BISP headquarters Islamabad.

Sindh College Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah and BISP Sindh Director General Fouzia Basharat Samo were also present to witness the ceremony. The purpose of the MOU was to forge a partnership between the BISP and the provincial college education department to jointly implement a co-responsibility cash transfer (CCT) under the Waseela-e-Taleem programme in Sindh for the the promotion of higher secondary/Intermediate education.

According to MoU, the CCT programme will provide a safety net and viable option to make investment in human capital development, for the most vulnerable and marginalised families in Sindh to promote higher secondary education among their children.

According to a statement issued on Monday, the Sindh college education department will provide supply-side data for capacity analysis to help the beneficiaries select the higher secondary schools or colleges for enrolment in the higher secondary CCT programme and to facilitate access to higher secondary schools and colleges for collection of attendance data of enrolled children of the BISP families on a quarterly basis.

Akbar explained that the BISP board had decided to add higher secondary students of grades 11 and 12 in the Waseela-e-Taleem programme. Under the project, the federal government was providing cash grants to children from the poorest families on attainment of

70 per cent attendance in school.

He added that the digitisation of the project was aimed at enhancing primary and secondary school enrolment and minimising dropouts. He said that currently approximately two million children had been registered and were getting their stipends on a quarterly basis.