RAJSHAHI, June 26, 2024 (BSS) - A divisional level workshop on Prime Minister Education Assistance Trust was held here today aimed at infusing dynamism into its implementation activities.
 
Integrated Stipend Scheme of the trust organized the workshop at Rajshahi College auditorium discussing and devising ways and means on how to expedite the disbursement of the stipend.

Commissioner of Rajshahi division Dr Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir addressed the workshop as chief guest, while Director of the trust Farhad Siddique was in the chair.

Director of the scheme Muhammad Asabul Haque, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Rajshahi Mohinul Hassan, Regional Director of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education Prof Biswajit Banerjee and Principal of Rajshahi College Prof Abdul Khaleque also spoke.

The meeting was told that the Prime Minister's Education Assistance Trust has been giving stipends to some 5.4 million underprivileged and meritorious students in the secondary level through Nagad, a leading mobile financial service provider in Bangladesh, with a view to ensuring their enrolments in schools.
 
Under the stipend disbursement programme, students from classes 6 to 10 are getting Taka 5,000 each in one-time assistance.

Every year, underprivileged and meritorious students at the secondary, higher secondary and graduate levels have been provided one-time assistance.

In his remarks, Dr Dewan Humayun Kabir said the National Parliament passed the 'Prime Minister's Education Assistance Trust Bill' in 2012, with an aim to ensure the education of poor and talented students who are deprived of education opportunities due to lack of money.
 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the chairperson of the five-member advisory council of the Education Assistance Trust. The other four members are the finance minister, the planning minister, the education minister and the primary and mass education minister.

The overall activities of the trust are run by a 26-member Board of Trustees.
 
The trust launched an admission assistance service from the 2014-15 financial year, for admission of poor and meritorious students to educational institutions, providing Taka 5 thousand for each secondary level student, Taka 8 thousand for higher secondary level and Taka 10 thousand for graduate and equivalent level.