Govt rolls out Rs150b mega youth package

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government on Tuesday formally unveiled the Prime Minister’s Youth Development Package worth Rs150 billion to empower the younger generation with modern and technical education.

Under the umbrella of the Prime Minister’s Youth Development Initiatives, as many as 15 programmes were launched by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal at a ceremony here.

The youth programme was rolled out as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched the ‘Teleschool Pakistan App, Google for Education and Digital Continuous Professional Development’ initiative to further revolutionise the formal education medium in Pakistan.

The Youth Development Package includes 60,000 paid internships, technical and vocational trainings for 100,000 youth, distribution of 100,000 laptops, provision of 5,000 scholarships for the students of Balochistan and erstwhile tribal areas.

Around 1,000 PhD scholarships at top 100 universities in the United States and 75 scholarships at top 25 universities of the world, establishing 21 university campuses in remote districts and 250 sports complexes, are also part of the package.

Besides, the package envisages youth peace and development student councils in 80 universities, 75 leadership awards, 500 innovation grants worth Rs5-20 million each, Rasta grants for research, 12 Seerat chairs, seven centres of excellence and uplift of 20 poorest districts.

“The two-thirds of the country’s population comprises young people, who must be empowered through education and skills so that they can contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country,” Iqbal told the ceremony.

At the launching ceremony, the minister also administered oath to the Young Peace Development Corps (YPDC) that was attached to the country’s various universities.

The key objective of the YPDC is to bring young people together.

The ceremony was attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima, Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed and thousands of students from across the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Fatima said the government was committed to providing a conducive and enabling environment to the youth so that they could be empowered, making them able to play a role in the socioeconomic uplift of the country.

Teleschool app

Addressing the launching ceremony of ‘Teleschool Pakistan App, Google for Education and Digital Continuous Professional Development’, Prime Minister Shehbaz stressed that all resources and efforts should be utilised to introduce modern modes of education, including the digitisation initiatives.

Stressing the importance of imparting the latest training to teachers, the prime minister cited his experience in Punjab, observing that it was unfortunate that the teachers’ training in the country was not up to the mark.

The prime minister urged the federal education minister to chalk out a mechanism in consultation with the provincial governments to improve the quality of teachers’ training.

He also underscored the significance of adopting technology in modern education.

He emphasised that the students should be directly trained by involving the private sector.

“The best institutions in the private sector should be hired in a transparent manner and investment be made on each student by imparting them proper training,” he said.

The prime minister said that they would also establish a network of Danish schools in the far-flung areas of Balochistan for which huge investments would be made.

He hoped that the quality of education in remote areas would come at par with the rest of the country.

He also urged that the educational requirements of the orphan children should be taken care of.

He said imparting the latest education to the young generations should be the goal of life for them.

Earlier, the prime minister also distributed chrome books among different students of Islamabad. On the occasion, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited President Hatem Bamatraf also addressed the ceremony.