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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

PM okays scheme for free higher education

* 10,825 students from Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA to benefit from scheme

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Justice (r) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday approved the launch of a scheme for payment of tuition fee to students hailing from Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA who intend to do masters, MPhil and PhD.
The scheme called ‘Prime Minister’s Tuition Fee Payment Scheme’ was approved and launched at a high-level meeting attended by Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Education Dr Sania Nishtar and officials of the PM’s Secretariat and the Ministry of Professional and Technical Education. Dr Sania Nishtar briefed the prime minister on the salient features of the scheme. The prime minister was informed that the cabinet had approved the scheme in June 2012 and a sum of Rs 500 billion was allocated for the purpose in the budget. The scheme envisages that students from Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA will be provided tuition fee by the federal government so that they can undertake higher education.
The minister said that though education was a devolved subject, the federal government would provide equity to students so that efforts could be stepped up to improve education standards. She said the scheme further envisages that the federal government would bear all educational expenditure of an estimated 10,825 students from the three areas, of which 9,128 students would belong to Balochistan.
The prime minister said that gender-parity must be maintained and the scheme should be available for the next five years. The prime minister approved that students hailing from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas would benefit from the scheme if they were admitted to universities and colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the government was ready to commit more resources to education and to prioritise it, as “the government considers it critical to human resource development and the future of the nation”. app

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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