Islamabad: Ministry of Education's project titled 'Quality Educational Opportunities for Students of Balochistan & Fata' is facing hardships due to the lack of resources and required staff.
The main purpose of the project is to remove the backwardness and sense of deprivation of the people of Balochistan and Fata by giving their students opportunities at the national level to channelise their talent for the country's development.
The paper work on the project was started in 2006 and the project was approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on February 27, 2007 at a cost of Rs481 million to admit 1,650 students from Fata and Balochistan on scholarship basis. The ministry offered 100 scholarships for cadet colleges, which include 40 students from Fata and 60 from Balochistan, while 230 scholarships were for technical education, which include 92 students from Fata and 138 from Balochistan.
According to reliable sources in the ministry, the project is now facing severe difficulties due to the absence of a proper mechanism, resources and staff. "Project Management Units (PMUs) were established in Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar in order to monitor the funds' spending and students' performances but the selection of staff is still under process for all PMUs except Balochistan," the source revealed adding that the approved PC-1 provides for 48 posts for all three PMUs, however, only two posts have been filled in the Islamabad PMU and the situation is no different in Peshawar. "Only the posts of project director (BPS-20) and deputy project director (BPS-19) have been filled so far and that too with no proper office for the purpose," he said.
The source further revealed that the scholarships are totally merit based and many of the students tried to take advantage of their domiciles despite receiving their education from top educational institutions of the country. "It is not fair to place a student of some high level institution in competition with students of the downtrodden areas of Balochistan," he said and stressed the need for 'Scholarship Management Committees' to look into selection criteria, funds availability and other related matters. "Only those students should be granted scholarships, who have received their education from that particular area." He further suggested that there should at least be a quota for settlers or non-settlers in Balochistan as in the case of Fata where only 20 per cent non-settler students could apply for the scholarships.
Highlighting the effects of inflation on the scholarships, the source said that now the boarding expenses of students besides their tuition fee have increased manifold during the last year and it is difficult for the government to provide 100 per cent scholarships to the students. "Previously, the scholarship cost of one student was Rs106,000 per annum that has increased up to Rs250,000 besides the boarding charges," he said.
He said last year, they faced immense difficulty in providing fee to the educational institutions in time due to the financial crunch and many of the institutions warned to expel students, but finally, the funds were released, which secured the future of the students.
Deputy Director PMU Islamabad Ejaz-ur-Rehman, said it is true that the project is facing hardships due to the non-availability of resources and staff, yet they were able to meet hundred per cent targets during the previous years. "We are successful in providing in-time scholarships to the students while striving hard to remove the bottlenecks of the project," he said. He said they are planning for an important meeting with Secretary Education Abdur Rauf Chaudhry to look into the project's bottlenecks and resolve them in the implementation. The News
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