Editorial
The missing stipend money
Apply the law against the guilty
IT is a sad commentary on our socio-economic realities that even stipends meant for school students is pilfered by individuals who should have known better. News reports from Rangpur reveal that as much as Tk. 346 crore, meant to be stipends for girl students under the first phase of the Female Secondary Education Stipend Project (FESP), was embezzled allegedly by officials of the education department as well as a group of unscrupulous teachers. Indeed, there seems to have been a clear nexus of officials and teachers in the whole ignoble exercise. A total of Tk. 1800 crore was sanctioned for the period 1994-2004 and of that amount Tk. 1400 crore was shown to have been used up as stipend money. The rest of the amount, of course, was spent on other aspects of the project.
The question which now comes up relates to the extent of the corruption involved. Clearly, there is a grave need here to identify the elements taking part in the sordid enterprise. What has happened is that some dishonest teachers and education officials conspired to grab the money by showing on paper the names of fictitious students. And these fake names were 13 lakh in total, which explains where and how the money disappeared. The instance of 28 educational institutions being part of the stealing in Nilphamari alone is a hint of the nefarious deed that was committed. A total of Tk. 9,34,000 went into the hands of non-existent students.
Now that an investigation has revealed the extent of the corruption, it is worth inquiring if adequate safeguards are there to ensure a foolproof working of the second phase of the FESP, which commenced in 2005 with a total outlay of Tk. 502.98 crore.
The misappropriation of the stipend money undermines the very principle upon which the FESP was enunciated. The principle was but an offering of an incentives package, so to say, in order to ensure that girl students went through a substantive mode of education in the interest of their future. In other words, the stipends are a guarantee of their education which, in turn, is a defence against the risks of early marriage in the rural regions. Broadly speaking, therefore, such stipends serve the purpose of promoting women's empowerment as a way of sensitising people to the objective realities around them. Let stringent steps be taken to ensure that such endeavours are not endangered in future. At the same time, we expect the law to be applied forcefully and swiftly against the people guilty of stealing the stipend money.
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