Going by the statistics, Pakistan’s education system is in a dismal state. Reports tell that approximately 22.8 million children aged 5-16 years in Pakistan are out of school, out of which, 12.6 million are girls.
Since the inception of Pakistan, the state of the education system has worsened over time. All of this happened due to consistent budget cuts in the development sector of the education system. Reports suggest that most of the allocated budget is used for the non-development sector, which makes it difficult to work towards the betterment of students and to bring them back to school.
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Moreover, the budgeting system is biased towards the male gender, which on the contrary pledges equal education for Pakistani children. If we look at the statistics, in Pakistan, out of the 119,813 same-sex primary schools in the country, only 43,741 are for girls. Only 36% and this clearly reflects the partial treatment of girls in Pakistan.
Looking at the grim state of affairs, it is the need of the hour to bring in gender-responsive budgeting system in the country. It is high time, girls of Pakistan are sent to schools in the same way boys are.
Calculating the situation at hand, and analyzing the attention it needed, PM Imran Khan has launched an Ehsaas School stipend program for “deserving” families, so that they could send their children to schools.
The PM also highlighted how more girls are out of school than boys, and how this needs to change. There is a dire need to give girls the importance they deserve and they are more worthy of the stipend programs.
“We did not give importance to education but especially, and unfortunately, we did not give importance to the girls’ education,” PM said.
Our PM took the stats into consideration and hence kept the stipend higher for girls. “In this program, the amount of stipend has been kept especially higher for girls. School stipends are for primary, secondary and higher secondary education,” a statement read.
According to the federal government, the Ehsaas School Stipend Program will be rolled out countrywide across all districts. Under this initiative, primary school boys will get quarterly stipends of Rs1,500 and girls Rs 2,000; secondary schoolboys will get Rs2,500 and girls Rs3,000 and higher secondary-level boys will get Rs3,500 and girls Rs4,000 a quarter.
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