F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: As many as 10,270 scholarships of various categories have been awarded to the students of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last five years under the Higher Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) and Chief Minister Education Endowment Fund (CMEEF) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government with a total cost of Rs. 337.13 millions.
This was told in a meeting of the Board of Directors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Higher Education Scholarship Endowment Fund held here Monday with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair.
Beside, Special Assistant to CM on Higher Educ-ation, Kamran Bangash, Secretary Higher Education, Muhammad Dawood and Secretary Finance, Aatif Rehman, the meeting was attended by other members of the BoD and concerned officials.
Briefing the meeting about the details of various Scholarships provided to the student, it was informed that under the CMEEF, seven foreign Ph.D Scholarships have been awarded to eligible students with a total cost of Rs. 191.00 millions.
Similarly, 74 undergraduate and 39 Graduate Scholarships worth Rs. 52.42 millions have been provided to students for admissions in educational institutions across the country.
The meeting was further told that under the HEEF, a total of 10,156 Scholarships amounting to Rs. 95.13 million have been awarded to the students of BS in public sector colleges of the province on merit cum affordability basis.
The meeting was also briefed about financial and administrative matters and other related issues of the Higher Education Scholarship Endowment Fund and important decisions were taken to this effect.
Matters related to the selection of educational institutions for the award of scholarships were also came under discussion and the meeting decided to make necessary amendments in the relevant rules to make the selection criteria more effective and in line with the contemporary needs.
The high ups of Higher Education Department were directed to propose necessary amendments in the rules and present the same to provincial cabinet for final approval.
Underlining the need of having a separate fund to facilitate the needy and disabled students to meet their educational expenses, the Chief Minister directed the concerned authorities to carry out homework and come up with solid proposals to this effect.
He further directed the Higher Education Department to publicize the Scholarship program of the provincial government for the awareness of students across the province so that all the students get equal chances to avail the facility. Budget for the administrative and operational expenses of the Scholarship Endowment Fund was also approved in the meeting.
