Scholarships Awareness

By Mahjabeen Malik

Scholarships are gifts/awards or financial aid awarded to the students to continue their further studies in education. Scholarships are really blessing and ray of hope for the fluorescent future of the scholars. Let’s have a look on types of Scholarships first before going to its further detail:

Academic Scholarships
Average Performance Based Scholarships
Games/Athletes Scholarships
Minority Scholarships
Women Scholarships
Creative Scholarships.
Unusual Scholarships.

HEC, NGO’s, Welfare Foundations, Religious and Social Organizations, Private and Government Institutes as well as National and International Scholarships are being awarded to the scholars . Despite this thousands of students cannot avail this golden opportunity and drive their prospect into dark dungeon. Alas! The dilemma of misfortunate scholars is lake of awareness as they are unaware of the various types of scholarships and they do not know how to apply for scholarship. Many unfortunate but brilliant and talented pupils have to quit their studies due to lake of money. It will be right to say that the actual disaster of poor students is not lake of money but it is lake of awareness/knowledge. The literacy rate in our dear homeland ‘Pakistan’ is very low , regrettably. It has been decreased from 60% to 58% during the last year from 2017 to 2018 which is an alarming sign for our dear state. Not only the literacy rate of our innocent nation is low but the general knowledge and information is also wretched. Parents and students are quite unaware of scholarship. They do not know how can they apply for scholarship and who can apply for the scholarship? Poor knowledge is always dangerous. So it is mandatory to give awareness to the students and their parents about national and international scholarships awarded to Pakistani scholars and overseas Pakistani scholars as well.

Dear readers, now with heavy heart, I’m turning your attention to the plight of our overseas Pakistani scholars. Millions of Pakistanis, settled in various foreign countries , are facing ghostly problems. A large number of workers especially labourers rush abroad with the charming dreams of better future prospect but unfortunately, they had to face host of hurdles achieving their golden goal. So Government of Pakistan has taken special measures to resolve the problems of those destitute overseas Pakistanis. OPC (Overseas Pakistani Commission) has taken an initiative to ensure the rights of Pakistanis living abroad. OPF & PEEF are assisting the children of overseas Pakistanis by awarding them scholarships.

Overseas Scholarships for Pakistanis students

OPF (Overseas Pakistanis Foundation) is facilitating a financial support to a number of overseas Pakistani students . OPF was established on 8^th July in1979 under the Emigration Ordinance. All operations of OPF are managed under the overall control of the Board of Governors and the Federal Government of Pakistan.

PEEF (Punjab Educational Endowment Fund) was an initiative of the Government of Punjab in 2009 . Its objectives are to provide scholarships/financial assistance to talented and needy students for availing equal educational opportunities. Since its establishment in 2009,PEEF has awarded more than 235,000 scholarships worth more than 11.5 billion Pakistani currency and total number of scholarships has been increased to 350,000 by 2018 with an estimated worth of Rs. 18.25 billion. The Punjab Endowment Educational Fund and Overseas Pakistanis have signed MOU to award more than 732 scholarships to talented and destitute children of overseas Pakistanis registered with OPF. The title of scholarship programs is PEEF-OPF program, these scholarships will be awarded to intermediate, graduate and masters level of education.

How to apply in OPF & PEEF Scholarships? Eligible candidates can download application forms from official website of OPF or FEEP. Then take out its hard copy and submit to OPF head office in Islamabad or PEEF head office in Lahore. Form can also be submitted to regional offices which are located in Karachi, Mirpur Khas, Peshawar, Multan and Quetta.

Fully funded scholarships cover both tuition fee and living expenses. As all scholarships are not the same; There are some scholarships which cover only tuition fee where as some other scholarships envelop only living expenses. Fully funded scholarships provide all what a scholar needs to pursue studies abroad. Here is a list of some national and international Scholarships for Pakistani students

Alflah Scholarship Scheme For All Students
PWWB Talent Scholarship For M.Phil., MS, Ph.D.
Dalda Scholarship
Al Khidmat Foundation Scholarship
Career Karwan Foundation Scholarship
NEST-National Endowment Scholarship
AWPA Punjab Merit Scholarship
Fauji Foundation Scholarship
Quaid e Azam Aligarh Trust Scholarship
Hamdard Foundation Scholarship
NTS Scholarship
PEEF Scholarship
Student Loan Scheme
IBA Talent Hunt
LUMS NOP Program
Pakistan Engineering Congress Scholarships
Provincial Government in GIKI on need based Scholarships
Japan Scholarships for Pakistani students
HEC Sri Lanka Institute Of Information Technology
Walailak University Of Thailand Full Funded & Partial Scholarship
British Council Scholarship

International Scholarship provide aid to talented students to work for the welfare & betterment of their own country and enable the students to get better job opportunity. The main objective of International scholarships is to develop education all over the world.