KARACHI, Dec 1: Owing to negligence of education department officials many girls of government schools could not receive their annual scholarship since August.

Students have been visiting the post offices for the last four months to receive their scholarship, but majority of them could not get it due to mistakes in the official record. They urged the higher authorities to ensure provision of the same through their schools without any further delay.

During visit to different schools in Orangi, Baldia and SITE towns on Friday, it was learnt that the delay in provision of scholarship had caused resentment among students. In the past, scholarships used to be given through schools usually in the month of Ramazan, but this time it was being done through post offices.

The lists provided to the post offices did not carry names of majority of the students and hundreds of the scholarships were returned due to mistakes in addresses, names of students and their fathers.

The government provides an annual scholarship of Rs1,000 each to girls from Class-VI to Class-X in order to reduce their drop-out rate. However, six out of nine schools in Baldia have not been provided the scholarships. In SITE, students of 10 out of 19 schools have so far been kept deprived of it. “In Orangi Town, about 30 per cent of the students have so far received scholarship, while the rest of them are still waiting,” told an official of the education department on condition of anonymity.

The head mistresses said they had provided detailed lists to the education department, which contained names of students and their parents as well as residential addresses. Despite complete information, they said there were mistakes in money orders.

When approached the officials of the general post offices in respective towns, they said, “We have been trying to locate the houses of students but due to mistakes in names and addresses, the scholarships could not be distributed. In some cases, the names of schools have been given in the lists without mentioning the sectors, streets and union councils, while there are many schools of the same name in the towns,” added an official of the post office.

A GPO official suggested that the money order forms should be filled through the heads of the schools concerned so that the problem could be overcome. When asked as to why the GPO staff had accepted the incomplete money orders, he said it was duty of the divisional superintendent to ascertain the same, adding that the distribution offices are not responsible for it.