Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training, Engineer Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman Thursday said the government is going to launch Qarz-e-Hasna (interest free loan) scheme for deserving students who aspire to get higher education. He stated this while addressing the closing ceremony of a workshop on education assessment and laptop distribution event organised here at Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE).
"The students would be provided with Qarz-e-Hasna (interest free loan) for their higher studies, and they would return the amount at 5 per cent per year after starting their jobs," Rehman announced. The minister further said that scholarships for bright students of matriculation and intermediate have been increased to Rs 50,000 per year to encourage them.
Distributing the laptops among top three position holders; he said that students in the next phase would get laptops along with prize money in accordance with the directions of the President of Pakistan. The minister said that prize money for matriculation examinations for top three positions have been increased to Rs 100,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. For intermediate, it has been increased to Rs 200,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs 100,000 for the first three positions.
The minister said it has been planned to improve examination system by curbing the menace of cheating. He urged for improving education standard through promoting conceptual learning. Although education is now a devolved subject, he said, yet it is responsibility of the Centre to help provinces in the improvement of this sector.
He said that system of training, evaluation and assessment is getting improved, adding that training manuals have been developed at FBISE with the suggestions of other boards for the first time which is a remarkable achievement. He added that one window operation system and issuance of online roll number slip are great initiatives of the FBISE.
Pakistan is going to adopt international assessment systems by 2019, he added. He said National Education Assessment System has been introduced to assess existing system and improve it further. No planning can be done without assessment of ground situation, added the minister. Baligh-ur-Rehman said that system of training, evaluation and assessment is improving with the passage of time and Pakistan is going to adopt international assessment systems like PISA and TIMSS by 2019.