PEF plans to Enrol 3.5m out-of-School Children
Rawalpindi : September 29: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has planned to enrol 3.5 million, between the age of 6 and 16 years, out-of-school needy children in its education programme.
The children will be enrolled in the PEF partner institutions and will be educated under a 40-month ‘Foundation Course’ leading to primary-level certification.
This course has been designed by the Provincial Literacy Department. The PEF will bear all expenses of the children, so that they can get education without any financial burden. The PEF partner schools are authorised to hold morning and evening classes for the children.
PEF Chairman Raja Anwar announced the programme while addressing a district coordination meeting of heads of low-cost private schools which partnered with the PEF under its ‘Foundation Assisted School programme’ in the Rawalpindi division.
PEF MD Dr Aneela Salman, DMD (F) Salman Anwar Malik, FAS Director Nadeem Masood, Additional. Directors Syed Naveed Abbas, Zubaida Muslim Ali, Iftikhar Rabbani and other officers concerned attended the meeting.
Raja Anwar said the foundation had been a harbinger of social changes in the province by arranging free education for the most needy children.
He said the partner schools’ monthly grant had been increased to give financial support to them so that they could further improve their standard of education. Thus, the students would be the ultimate beneficiary, he added.
He said the PEF would pay its partners Rs 450 for elementary, Rs 500 for secondary (arts), Rs 600 for secondary (science), Rs 700 for higher secondary (arts) and Rs 900 for higher secondary school (science) students on a monthly basis.
He said this project would go a long way towards ensuring educational equality in the province.
Dr Aneela Salman said the plan to educate the out-of-school children had been termed a flagship programme by international donors, and would be a giant leap towards promotion of quality education at the grassroots level.
She asked the partner organisations to play an active role in the programme so that literacy could be spread to those who could not afford it. The PEF was giving importance to promote girls’ education as it was the need of the hour, she added.
Dr Aneela stressed the need for working jointly with the government for fighting illiteracy through education.
The PEF DMD said soft loans would be given to the schools partnered with the PEF-FAS programme during Phase-7 for the purchase of computers.
PEF Director Nadeem Masood said criteria had been finalised for the enrolment of the children under which ceiling of student enrolment had been fixed.
He said the expansion of Phase-8 of the FAS programme would be launched soon.
Later, PEF chairman and MD gave away consolation prizes to students and teachers for good performance in the PEC examinations. app.
