FAISALABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Saturday that young people are a real asset to Pakistan and that PTI focuses on producing entrepreneurs instead of generating great number of job seekers.
Addressing the 2nd annual convocation of the Government Postgraduate College for Women Samanabad, he said the government has allocated Rs 28 billion to provide scholarships to 2.6 million talented students belonging to the lower and middle class.
He said that just a few days ago the Prime Minister launched an innovative scholarship complaints portal project so that students can lodge their complaints about any misuse in the distribution of scholarships.
He proudly announced that the Ehsaas program was ranked 4th among 3400 social protection programs in the world in the World Bank ranking.
He said the program offered multilateral support to people of different categories.
The Ehsaas program was providing livelihoods to over 7 million people and now the government was considering offering a monthly stipend to their children. The primary school student would receive a monthly stipend of Rs 1,500 while it would be Rs 3,000 for the middle class student, he added.
Farrukh Habib said Prime Minister Imran Khan was making serious efforts to eradicate child labor and divert this neglected lot to schools so that they can contribute their productive role in the overall development of Pakistan.
He said that previously middle-class families had to sell their assets for their children’s education in public sector universities. But the government had now decided to offer 200,000 scholarships to families with monthly income below Rs 45,000 and the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) for Poverty Alleviation and Social Security, Dr Sania Nishtar handled this gigantic program very efficiently, he added. .
He said the Punjab government is also doing its best for the education sector. Primary schools have been upgraded up to middle and middle level up to secondary level in addition to providing the missing facilities in these establishments.
The Minister of State said that the government is also trying to launch evening classes in institutions where it has been lacking so far. The teacher transfer system has also been brought online to facilitate the teaching community, he said.
He added that the government had shifted its focus to technical education.
In this regard, technical universities are being established in the country, including three such universities in Punjab, he said, adding that these universities would impart technical skills and expertise to the 120 million young people so that they can be acquired by the industrial sector.
He said that for high-tech education, 100,000 scholarships had so far been awarded while another 100,000 were in the pipeline.
The minister said that the government has allocated Rs 10 billion to the Kamyab Jawan program. “Our young people are the most talented and excellent in the IT sector,” he said, adding that “our IT export was $800 million, which is expected to increase to $3 billion during PTI’s tenure.”
He also stressed the need to promote a positive social attitude in the country and said teachers and students must play their part in making Pakistan a livable country. He praised the passed out graduates and said the government was giving them easy loans to start their own businesses instead of chasing jobs.
MPA Firdous Rae, College Principal Shahida Rae and faculty members were also present on the occasion.
