PESHAWAR: The Elementary Education Foundation (EEF) has extended a voucher scheme designed to support out-of-school children from eight districts to the entire province, a local media outlet reported on Saturday.
According to EEF Managing Director Zulfiqar Ahmed, the EEF aims to enroll 90,000 more out-of-school children at private schools in the region where public schools are not accessible. 41,000 students are currently receiving education at private schools in eight districts across the province under the voucher scheme.
“The scheme has been extended to the entire province in the current academic year,” he said.
Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan Mansehra, Kohat, Swat and Mardan were the only areas where the voucher scheme was operational before. The Iqra Faroghe Taleem Voucher Scheme was developed by the government to support out-of-school children since April, 2015 in areas. The government’s voucher scheme sought to enroll students from poor backgrounds into private schools where a public school was not available within a 1.5 km radius.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Free Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Act 2017 requires the government to provide free and compulsory education for children up to 16 years old. A recent survey, however, showed that 1.8 million children in the province are currently out of school.
“The EEF has extended the voucher scheme to the rest of the province. A contract has been given to the Bureau of Statistics for identification of the out-of-school children in the province,” said Zulfiqar Ahmed.
“Until now, the bureau has found 48,000 children who are out of school,” he added.
He added that identification of children not currently enrolled is in process and explained that Rs 700 million had been allocated by the government under the voucher scheme for the current academic year.
As part of this scheme, the EEF pays Rs 500 as tuition fee for primary students, Rs 600 for students between grade VI-VIII, Rs 800 for 9th- 10th grade students and Rs 2,500 for each student for uniform, stationary and books.
