Provinces urged to utilise fiscal space created by Ehsaas stipend programme

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan, Dr. Sania Nishtar and the entire government machinery that worked to make the Ehsaas Education Stipend programme a reality deserve a huge gratitude. This programme has been launched at a time when Pakistan is struggling to prevent millions of marginalized students, especially girls, from dropping out of schools in the aftermath of the pandemic-triggered financial strain experienced by households across the country.

These views were expressed by Areebah Shahid, Executive Director, Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA) here Friday. The stipend programme has been structured along the lines of Ehsaas’ stipend policy that incentivizes higher stipend amounts for girls as compared to boys.

Under these stipends, boys enrolled at the primary level will receive quarterly stipends of Rs. 1,500 and girls Rs. 2,000. Similarly, secondary school-going boys will receive Rs. 2,500 and girls Rs. 3,000 and at the higher secondary level, boys will get Rs. 3,500 and girls Rs. 4,000 per quarter. Upon the attainment of 70% attendance of their children, the education stipends will be paid biometrically to the mothers.

Explaining the long-term importance of the scheme, Hisham Khan, Program Coordinator at PYCA said, “This programme will reduce the burden of the provinces to shoulder the stipend schemes alone and give them fiscal space to allocate their education development funds for other urgently needed interventions such as school nutrition or school midday meal programmes and for uplifting the quality of overall education.”

Adding to this, Areebah pointed out, “The nationwide roll-out of the stipend program will especially benefit students in provinces that do not currently have cash support schemes for out-of-school children.”

Pakistan currently has 22.8 million out-of-school children, the majority of whom are girls. It is feared that millions more might drop-out in the backdrop of the on-going pandemic. And so, while the launch of the stipend programme is a welcome step for the future of Pakistani children, it is equally important that the provinces to use the greater fiscal space being created for them through this intervention to prioritize investment in enhancing the quality of education in public schools.