One of the important Ehsaas initiatives, the Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships scheme is to be launched soon. Ehsaas has over 130 policies and programmes and this is one of them. The Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships scheme is a key initiative of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and Higher Education Commission (HEC). A memorandum of agreement has already been signed on September 20, 2019 and today the project steering committee met, to firm up modalities of the joint working. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation and Dr. Tariq Banuri, Chairman, HEC. Ali Raza Bhutta, Secretary BISP; Arshad Mehmood, Additional Secretary Finance; Dr. Fateh Marri, Executive Director, HEC and Dr. Raza Chohan, DG - HEC, Dr. Muhammad Ali, VC Quaid e Azam University & Convener - VCs Committee and Dr. Khalid Mehmood, Sr. Director Complementary Initiatives, BISP also came to the table. The meeting was called by Dr. Nishtar to mutually granularize the eligibility criteria of the said Ehsaas sub-project, its standard operating procedures, allocation of scholarships, financial mechanism and communications plan. Article 25-A provides the right to free education from age 5 to 16 years. To provide financial access to education beyond that point, Ehsaas is launching the need-based Ehsaas undergraduate scholarship programme. Through this, students qualifying for the project will have access to undergraduate education regardless of income, gender, or location. The number of scholarships will be determined based on the budget envelope. Talking about the initiative, Dr. Nishtar said, “the Prime Minister has instructed that the undergraduate scheme should be launched as soon as possible. The Government realizes that deprivation to education is the highest contributor in Pakistan’s national multi-dimensional poverty index. Therefore, Ehsaas wishes to pay special attention to the education of undergraduate students especially women and girls from underprivileged families and areas’. The need for Ehsaas undergraduate scholarships is critical, as poverty is both the root cause as well as a consequence of multi-faceted development problems in Pakistan. ******* ?
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