Quality education remains inaccessible for underprivileged children owing to financial barriers spanning tuition fees, books, transport etc. Myriad public and private scholarship programmes attempt addressing the gaps using aid models like Conditional Cash Transfers.
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This article reviews two popular interventions – the BISP run Benazir Taleemi Wazifa (BTW) stipends and institutional/corporates funded local area Private Scholarship Schemes. Comparing key parameters provides insights into their relative effectiveness towards enhancing enrollment and learning.
BTW’s Focus on Girl Child Empowerment
As Pakistan’s flagship CCT initiative supporting school education through financial means, BTW maintains a clear focus towards mobilizing girls from marginalized pockets. This manifests through:
1. Customized Cash Transfers
Stipend amounts provisioned are 10-20% higher for girl child at each level – primary, middle and secondary.
2. One-time Monetary Incentive
Girls successfully completing primary education get a bonus reward payment.
3. Complimentary Awareness Drives
Gender sensitization initiatives target local communities on merits of female education.
Thereby, it structurally attempts elevating female literacy in line with Sustainable Development Goal commitments using monetary plus policy catalysts.
Stringent Eligibility Criteria
For availing BTW assistance, stringent appraisal criteria centred on need and identity gets applied:
- Only children of families identified under BISP national poverty rankings qualify, subject to means testing.
- Recognized ID documents like Child Registration Certificate are mandated, coupled with address/area verifications.
Thus, despite enrolling over 8 million kids till date, leakages remain contained given the multi-layered filtering funnels applied before approvals.
Outreach Concentrated in Remote Areas
A defining hallmark of BTW lies in its explicit orientation towards marginalized communities residing in 144 extremely backward and underserved tehsils through:
- Prioritizing awareness generation activities in distant localities.
- Establishing dedicated registration camps providing last-mile services.
- Building relatively larger operational capacities in rural pockets prone to institutional gaps.
Thereby, emphasis stays on equitable access to transform fates of the invisible populace deprived since generations.
Private Scholarships – Driven by CSR Priorities
On the other hand, numerous Private Scholarship programmes have emerged over the last decade funded by leading corporates either individually or collectively as part of their CSR mandates. These are driven by varied core objectives:
1. Industry/Sector Specific Skills
Banks sponsoring accounting degrees to create future talent pools.
2. Geographic Inclusiveness
Conglomerates funding talent from lower tier cities where education quality gaps impede careers.
3. Societal Commitments
Foundation grants furthering enrollment of children from minority communities.
4. Institutional Linkages
Firms collaborating with engineering colleges for research exposure.
Thereby, corporate grants execution usually integrates with business imperatives blends through selective personal financing of higher education for high potential students.
Customized Selection Criteria
Scholarship eligibility gets determined based on multiple aspects in line with sponsor priorities:
- Academic excellence – Grade 10/12 results signaling future prospects.
- Economic background – Assessing affordability challenges.
- Diversity parameters – Gender, religion, geography etc.
- Domain aptitude – Aligning subject choice in areas of interest.
Thus, apart from financial need, evaluating holistic student profiles aids customized targeting.
Comparative Analysis of Key Metrics
Analyzing the two models on critical education access parameters exposes crucial tradeoffs:
| BTW | Private Scholarships | |
| Enrollment Scale | Extensive – over 9 million | Limited – few thousands |
| Aid Structuring | Standardized stipend rates | Customized, variable grants |
| Eligibility | Income only bracketing | Merit plus need criteria |
| Duration | Schooling years | University education |
Summing Up
BTW and private scholarships both enable progress by addressing access inequalities from varied standpoints. While corporate grants are smaller magnitude consulting emerging needs, BTW signifies mass transformation integrating income realities for basic education. Thus, the constructs essentially remain complementary fostering a common vision of empowerment.
With Education For All being an urgent imperative, amalgamating strengths from both public and private players can maximize the cause. Afterall, our children represent the future.
Nauman is an education policy analyst associated with BISP as senior program consultant for the Benazir Taleemi Wazaif conditional cash transfer initiative. He heads portfolio management for the program including planning, budgeting and performance monitoring. Nauman has over 10 years experience in the social impact space. He completed his MPhil in Economics from Government College University Lahore, focusing his research on financial inclusion for literacy and skills development.