BISP has achieved the target of enrolling more than one million beneficiary children in schools in 32 districts. As education is a provincial subject, it is important to take provinces on board in order to design a framework for the success of this programme in future. This was stated by Minister of State and Chairperson BISP, MNA Marvi Memon in her opening remarks while addressing the Stakeholders Consultation Conference. The conference was co-chaired by Chairperson BISP and Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training, Engr Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman.
The participants of the conference included Secretary Education AJ&K, Secretary Education GB, Secretary Education Sindh, Secretary Education Punjab, representatives of Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, World Bank, DFID, Aurat Foundation, IDS and officials of BISP.
Waseela-e-Taleem is Co-responsibility/ Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme BISP aimed at universal primary education. After its successful piloting in 5 districts in October, 2012, the programme was extended to 27 new districts across the country.
The programme extends financial support to the primary education children, between the age of 5 to 12 years, belonging to the BISP beneficiary families to improve enrolment and retention at the primary level. Under this programme, each beneficiary child receives a cash transfer to PKR 750 per quarter upon admission verification in 1st quarter and 70% attendance compliance in subsequent quarters till the completion of primary education.
The programme is implemented in close collaboration with provincial and district education departments. MoUs have been signed between provincial/ regional education departments and BISP. Presently, Aurat Foundation, being the partner firm of BISP, is executing the Waseela-e-Taleem activities. The existing contract of Aurat Foundation will expire on 31st July, 2016. BISP is working with provincial education departments to design a framework for monitoring and reporting the attendance compliance data of Waseela-e-Taleem primary school children in the post July, 2016 scenario.
The purpose of the Stakeholders Consultation Conference organized by BISP was to share the details of attendance compliance monitoring model with stakeholders and seek their feedback.
During the conference, MoS for Federal Education said that incentive based initiatives are vital to enroll out of school children and Waseela-e-Taleem programme of BISP is a right step in this direction. He appreciated this programme for its transparency and efficacy. He added that the federal government and all the provincial governments should play their due role for this noble cause.
The participants of the conference were informed that the attendance compliance model will be initially tested in pilot districts in the month of January, 2016 with the active participation and ownership by the respective provincial education departments. The successfully pilot model will be implemented in all Waseela-e-Taleem districts after July, 2016. The models discussed for different districts included attendance data collection through Android Tablets, through Assistant Education Officers (AEOs) and through especially designed registers.
On the occasion, Chairperson BISP said that BISP, being the national integrator, aims to equally spread the benefits of this programme to all the regions of the country and the cooperation of provinces to materialize this objective is very critical.
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