KhalidSibtain:
Islamabad (Daily Parliament Times):Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood chaired the board of directors meeting of the National Endowment Scholarships for talent today at the ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training. The meeting was attended by Parliamentary Secretary education Ms. Wajiha Qamar, Additional Secretary Mohyuddin Wani, and directors of the board including Ms. Afshan Nazley, Ms. Hina Tayyaba Khalil and Mr. Arshad Mahmoud.
The forum approved the budget of fiscal year 2021-22 for administrative expenses and scholarship programs including Art and Culture Scholarship program, Nursing Scholarship program, Fashion and Design scholarship program and Sir Syed Scholarship program. The board also approved the preparation of a short documentary highlighting the significance of all the scholarship programs under the NEST for the purpose of Social media campaign.
The BoD also reviewed the progress of scholarships of different programmes and it was apprised the chair that out of 1300 allocated scholarships for Nursing program, 1067 scholarships have been utilized and the rest would be utilized by the December.
Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood advised the NEST to ensure the transparency & fair selection criteria for all the scholarship programs. The minister directed the NEST to earmark the quota for differently abled people and also to maintain the database of all the students availing these scholarships.