Education Minister Dr Osman Farooq revealed the statistics at the parliament yesterday. Replying to a call attention notice brought by BNP lawmaker Shamsuddin Ahmed, Dr Farooq said the government is providing the stipends as part of its initiatives to promote girls education in the country.

In his notice, Shamsuddin alleged that the under the existing system, only the students enrolled in the board affiliated schools and collages were getting the stipend while the institutions which were just allowed to teach the students remained beyond the government programme.

Although the students of higher secondary level schools are not covered under the programme, female students in such institutions are getting stipends up to class nine, the minister said.

The existing system does not allow colleges without board affiliation to have the facility, he added.