ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Thursday asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to make stringent selection criteria for local and foreign scholarships to avoid misuse of funds.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training met at the HEC with MNA Mian Najeebuddin Awaisi in the chair.

HEC Human Resource Development (HRD) Director GeneralAayesha Ikram briefed the committee about the scholarship programmes.

She told the committee that there were 13 international and seven local scholarship programmes both for undergraduate and postgraduate levels offered by the HEC.

In response to a question, she said there were one per cent absconding students.

She told the committee that HEC had been following the absconding students besides filing court cases. Besides recovering the original amount, the HEC also imposed 25pc fine on the absconding students.

Later, officials of the HEC told Dawn that one per cent meant around 500 absconding students. They said HEC awarded 356,854 scholarships since 2002, including locals, need-based and foreign scholarships. Out of these, 206,860 were local, 131,221 need-based and 18,773 foreign scholarships.

Earlier, the DG told the committee that HEC awarded scholarships under three broad categories, including 14 foreign, 10 local and four need-based scholarship programmes in addition to nine others.

The committee directed the HEC to revisit the selection criteria of international and local scholarships.

The committee also decided to refer the matter related to scholarships to a subcommittee already appointed under the convenership of MNA Mehnaz Akbar Aziz.

Meanwhile, a senior official from the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) informed the committee that the commission was the apex body for technical education and vocational training.

NAVTTC is mandated to promote, facilitate, regulate and approve curricula and provide policy direction for the country’s entire technical education and skill development system.

He said 50,000 youth were being imparted high-tech training across Pakistan; 14,949 trainees completed skill training in batch-1 whereas 20,319 others completed skill training in batch 2 in 2020-21.

The committee directed NAVTTC to propose a special budget for widows/dropout girls and the outreach should be for the rural areas.

Parliamentary Secretary Federal Education and Professional Training Division Wajiha Qamar also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2022