ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said education was the key to a nation’s progress and development, and the Country couldnot move ahead without a well-educated and fully trained human resource.
While addressing a ceremony at the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) Headquarters in Islamabad for the expansion of Waseela-e-Taleem Program, the prime minister said any child without education was a burden on the society, and the nation and the parents needed to play their critical role in ensuring that their children were not a drop out.
Under the Waseela-e-Taleem Program, each beneficiary child receives a cash transfer of Rs 750 a quarter on conditional completion of 70 percent attendance in schools in 32 districts across the four provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.
The program would be extended to 50 districts and add another one million children to the current enrollment of 1.9 million.
The prime minister said the BISP Program for the poorest of the poor, was totally non-political in nature and extended beyond the provincial boundaries. He said it empowered the women and focuses on her critical role in sending her children to school and not to work. He asked the participants from 32 districts of the Country, and particularly the women to ensure that there was no child in the neighbourhood also that was deprived of education.
Abbasi said it was the only government program, which he hoped would end, after enabling the poorest and the most vulnerable families stand on their feet. He said the government was committed to the provision of education for all as it believed that without any knowledge, the society would not be able to fight the ills of extremism and terrorism.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was appreciative of the role of the BISP and its partners, the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK for helping the Country achieve its target of universal education for all commitments under the Millennium Development Goals.
The prime minister said the government definitely needed to do more for education and said despite the fact that it was a provincial subject, still the federal government was obligated to provide them the guidance and vision to ensure 100% enrollment, retention and graduation.
Abbasi was optimist that the target of adding another one million children to the already enrolled 1.9 million would be achieved. He however asked the BISP to ensure that quality education was imparted.
