Director General of the Benazir Income Support Programme(BISP), Sarah Saeed met Managing Director of the Punjab Education Foundation(PEF), Tariq Mahmood, to discuss possible collaboration between them. The Foundation spokesperson confirmed on Monday that they also discussed steps to enhance the quality of education in the Punjab.
Managing Director Tariq Mahmood told his guest that improving education was especially taken care of to enable students to get the best education. "The Punjab Education Foundation is committed to providing strenuous efforts in extending gratis educational facilities to all needy children across the province. Our Foundation is committed to further extending such facilities so that no child is left behind. It has targeted to educate 2.8 million mostly out of school children by 2018. This will help achieve the targets of 'Parho Punjab, Barho Punjab'," he said.
Director General Saeed then talked about the Waseela-e-Taleem initiative - a project aiming to enrol 1.5 million children in primary schools of 32 districts around the country during the next two years - saying, "The Benazir Income Support Programme is urging its beneficiary families to send their children to school so that they can become literate and economically self-sufficient in the future and around 3.3 million children between five and 12 years of age are present in the 1.47 million beneficiary families, out of which around 2.65 children are out of school and only 0.66 million are currently attending schools."
She too detailed him about the programme targeting to reach these out-of-school children in two years by introducing a stipend amount to encourage the beneficiary families to send their children to school instead of involving them in child labour.
"The programme is aiming to reduce the child labour and increase the human development by extending the Waseela-e-Taleem programme in seven new districts of the Punjab. The stipend amount will not only increase the enrolment number in primary school but also reduce the drop-out ratio of the currently attending school children," she added.