ISLAMABAD: The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) claims to have achieved their target of enrolling one million children of the programme’s beneficiaries in schools under the Waseela-i-Taleem initiative.

The social safety net also announced that the official celebration for this achievement will be launched by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar early next year.

BISP’s chairperson MNA Marvi Memon visited on Tuesday some schools where children of the social welfare organisation have been enrolled.

The programme is a four-year Co-responsibility Cash Transfer (CCT) project which was initiated to financially support primary education of five to12-year-old children from BISP beneficiary families. Each child receives a cash transfer of Rs 750 per quarter on meeting the admission verification in the first quarter and attendance requirement of 70 per cent in subsequent quarters till completion of primary education, said a statement issued by BISP.

The design of the programme was developed by BISP in consultation with World Bank, Department for International Development (DfID) and provincial education departments.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2015