PESHAWAR: The students and academicians of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) here on Thursday lauded the inauguration of the National Endowment Scholarships for Talent (NEST) programme for needy yet talented students and termed it a giant leap forward to enhance the literacy ratio in the country.
They said scholarships under NEST would help poor students in the completion of their studies without financial constraints besides creating a sense of competition among them.
Zeeshan Khan, a student of Peshawar University (PU) told APP that the inauguration of NEST has created a widespread jubilation in the faces of hundreds of thousands of the country’s students including KP and FATA. He termed it a very positive and pro-education initiative that would encourage low-income groups to get higher education in their chosen subjects.
He noted that this programme would help promote merit and performance besides promoting quality education including science, technology, and also producing quality manpower.
Ehtesham Khan, a student of BS Urdu programme at Government College Peshawar (GCP) also termed the NEST programme a very positive pro-education endeavour in which talented deserving students would be largely benefitted.
NEST has awarded 2,244 scholarships to talented and deserving students of the less developed districts for intermediate and graduation programmes according to a prescribed quota all over the country.
University of Peshawar Economics Assistant Professor, Muhammad Naeem termed NEST a pro-education step that would immensely help encouraging girls to get higher education without facing financial problems. He said that no country can make progress without the active participation of women and for it, the education of girls was of paramount importance.
Generally, he said, “We have observed that drop out ratio of students increase in higher studies the due to poor financial position of parents and this scholarship programme in addition to MORA (Ministry of Religious Affairs) and others merit-based scholarships would help create the spirit of competition among students that was good omen for the country”.
“We need expert doctors, engineers, architects, bankers and other professionals to take the country on the road of progress and development for which educational institutions have to play a key role by focusing on character building of the students while motivating them towards science and technology,” he said.
He said that a lot of jobs opportunities are now knocking our doors and asked students to get ready for job opportunities under the CPEC.
Professor Naeem said that CPEC was a game changer and a life line project for the country for which we need to educate the technical work force in order to take full advantage of this great opportunity.
