The government is considering extending its “primary education conditional cash transfer programme” (CCT) to the secondary level to help students continue education, a PM’s aide said Thursday.

The government is considering extending its “primary education conditional cash transfer programme” (CCT) to the secondary level to help students continue education, a PM’s aide said Thursday.

“Ehsaas secondary education CCT will help disadvantaged families to overcome financial barriers to access secondary education,” PM’s aide on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Sania Nishter said in a statement.

According to an estimate, at least 18.7 children are out of schools and the rate of dropouts at the secondary level is rising in the country.

Nishtar said girls will receive a higher stipend as compared to boys under the new policy.

“The prime objective is to encourage parents to send their daughters to schools and support them to achieve secondary education”, she said.

According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (1990-2018), the enrollment trends in primary and secondary education for both boys and girls indicate that girls are heavily disadvantaged in initial enrolment levels and they drop out from grades 5 to 8.

Under the Ehsaas programme, boys are receiving an amount of Rs1,500, while girls are getting Rs2,000 every quarter if they have 70% attendance at schools.

The Rs80 billion programme will bring five million deserving primary school children into its fold from across all 154 districts of Pakistan over a four-year duration, said the statement.

 

Originally Published by SAMAA