PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally launched a nationwide initiative to distribute 500,000 Chromebooks, equipped with MiFi internet connectivity, to deserving students and high achievers based strictly on merit. Addressing the launching ceremony, he noted that laptops are being provided to students from diverse educational backgrounds, including mainstream schools and madaris, based solely on talent and hard work, helping them access e-libraries and pursue quality education.
This is, indeed, one of the major initiatives of the PML(N Government, which will go a long way in promoting the use of technology in the learning process. There are countless students with no access to laptops and Internet because of financial constraints and the scheme launched by the Prime Minister will ensure that the devices reach all those who fulfill the criteria for the purpose, thereby removing the sense of deprivation among talented but disadvantaged students. It is also encouraging that the PML(N) Government takes pains to finalize details of almost all people-friendly and welfare initiatives to ensure they start benefiting the target people without much delay. It is known to all that the Yellow Cab scheme first launched in Pakistan by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1992 and re-introduced in Punjab in 2011 and 2014 under Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif helped a lot in combating youth unemployment, stimulating the local industry and modernizing public transportation. Similarly, it was the PML(N) Government, which successfully distributed about six hundred thousand laptops among students throughout Pakistan in the past, fulfilling dreams of as many students and their families. Laptops distributed during the Covid-19 pandemic served as a crucial lifeline for students to continue their education and earn a livelihood.
The distribution of Chromebooks by the Government of Pakistan – led by the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme and Ministry of Federal Education – carries major educational, economic and social significance. It will help promote the objective of bridging the digital divide as Chromebooks are to be distributed among high-achieving school, college, university and registered madrasa students across all provinces, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan. Devices are to be distributed on merit (verified via the Inter Boards Coordination Commission), with dedicated allocations for public schools, private foundation-supported schools and religious seminaries. Bundled Internet (such as MiFi devices) aims to extend digital access not just to students, but to an estimated 2.5 million family members in under-resourced or rural areas. It may also be pointed out that ChromeOS devices provide secure, lightweight access to e-libraries, virtual classrooms and online academic material, an aspect that assumes special significance in the given scenario when students are frequently asked to take online classes from homes due to security or other issues. The initiative moves traditional rote-learning environments toward digital integration, allowing students to keep pace with global educational standards. The programme ties into Pakistan’s first Google Chromebook assembly line, established in Haripur in partnership with Google and Tech Valley, laying the groundwork for local hardware supply chains and future tech manufacturing. The scheme will, hopefully, equip youth with cloud-based tools and prepare them for the digital economy, including freelancing, artificial intelligence research and remote global employment. In fact, this is yet another initiative aimed at modernizing the education sector in the country. The present government is investing money and energy on expansion of educational infrastructure as is evident from the recent inauguration of a Daanish School in Islamabad alongside 27 other campuses currently under construction nationwide, designed to offer state-of-the-art facilities and curricula. However, there is a dire need on the part of the Federal and Provincial Governments to initiate programmes for modernization of class-rooms and laboratories in all educational institutions. Incentives should also be offered to reputable firms to establish local manufacturing facilities for laptops and notebooks to ensure their availability at affordable cost.
