KARACHI, April 16: Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro said that the Decentralised Elementary Education Project (DEEP) would help the Sindh government to reduce the dropout ratio of children after primary, and the girl education would also get boost.

She said this while reviewing the progress of this programme in a meeting held on Saturday evening.

The minister said that a large number of out-of-school children and dropouts after primary were a major problem in Sindh. She said that the transparent distribution of stipends, scholarships and free textbooks would help to overcome the issue.

The project director, Inamullah Dharejo, informed the minister that under the project in question 132,615 sets of free textbooks were distributed among the poor girl students of class VI to VIII in the year 2005.

He said that the stipends to 7,460 girl students of class IX had also been distributed through cross cheques, while the interviews to provide scholarships of Rs3,500 per month to the girl students of class XI were under process.

Mr Dharejo said that the civil works including construction of pre-primary classes, boundary walls, and lavatory blocks, etc, would be started after getting approval.

Dr Khuhro ordered the project director to ensure delivery of scholarships in a very transparent manner.—PPI