Investing In Youth Best Way To Materialize Socio-economic Growth: Chairperson PYP

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Nov, 2016 ) : Chairperson Prime Minister's Youth Programme (PYP), Leila Khan Wednesday said the best way to materialize socio-economic development targets was to invest in youth of country as they had supreme potential.

"We can materialize our socio-economic development targets by investing in our youth. Therefore, the government is using a lot of resources for promoting higher education and research through Prime Minister's Laptop and fee reimbursement schemes", she added.

While chairing a meeting of officials concerned from Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms and Ministry of Finance, she expressed satisfaction over the pace of laptop distribution under Prime Minister's Laptop Scheme.

The members of meeting were informed that around 150,000 laptops have been distributed so far among talented university students across the country. Under Phase-I, as many as 100,000 whereas around 50,000 laptops had been disbursed under Phase-II of the scheme, she briefed.

All the PhD, MPhil/MS students enrolled in HEC recognized public sector universities are receiving latest 2-in-1 laptop with dongle devices for free internet connectivity that would help them access online research papers.

Journals and digital libraries for better research. Masters' and Bachelors' students are being awarded laptops strictly on merit basis, she further said. Leila Khan added, "It is worthy to note that the student community is favorably endorsing this remarkable education-friendly initiative of the PML-N government, as an overwhelming majority of the laptop beneficiaries in an HEC survey responded that the laptops they received are quite helpful in their studies".

The Chairperson also appreciated the efforts of Higher Education Commission in successfully running Prime Minister's Fee Reimbursement Scheme, under which around 150,000 students of Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA and less privileged areas of Punjab and Sindh have benefitted so far.

Under the scheme, fee of all eligible students is directly paid to the universities concerned by Higher Education Commission. Due to this initiative around 50 to 100 percent enrollment has increased in universities of Balochistan, as educational expenses of the students are totally paid by the Government under this scheme, she shared.