Punjab computer laboratories Project
Connecting rural schooling to global networking
Lahore, Dec 06: The unique Punjab IT Lab Project, which has been completed in a record
period of 110 days with an estimated cost of Rs 5 billion, has become talk of
the town as the school children and their parents are acknowledging this
extraordinary initiative, terming it as a milestone for the promotion of quality
education in the far-flung areas of the province. Chief Minister Punjab
Shahbaz Sharif is rightly taking pride for initiating this project, as the IT
project said to be his brainchild would help improve the school children's skill
and impart quality education through IT Labs. During the last 10 days, the
Chief Minister has made a hat-trick in the education sector uplift - by
launching Punjab IT project, recruitment of no less than 40,000 Educators purely
on merit and converting 1700 Urdu medium schools into the English medium. To
me personally, the CM should be careful as often the players play roughly after
making a hat-trick, considering that they had done their job. It is said, "Don't
think what you have achieved. Always keep in mind what you still have to do."
It was really a good news for me when my nephew called me from Hujra Shah
Muqeem a remote area in Okara district, the other day and said, " Now I have a
computer at my school." It was enough for me to understand that when a
sincere leader take initiatives for the betterment of the society, it always
benefits the real and deserving community not a specific class as was witnessed
in the case of notorious National Reconciliation Ordinance. I was one of
those who used to criticise the CM for launching Sasti Roti project for the poor
and giving huge subsidy on this project. In order to justify our point, we
used to say that the CM should spend these resources on development and
result-oriented projects rather than wasting the amount to feed the needy for
the time being. But many like me have been left with no other option but to
appreciate the CM of the people of the Punjab, after he launched the IT project
within a record time across the province. Interestingly, the local media has also termed it as good news for the young
generation of the province, urging the governments of other provinces to
replicate this model all over the country. Under the Punjab IT Lab Project,
every school has been equipped with 3 desktop PCs and 12 virtual desktops with
licensed software from Microsoft, high speed internet connection and hardware
solutions from national and international companies like Inbox, Siemens, PEL,
N-Computing, and others IT companies. This project has been completed and over
4,286 schools have been covered in this project. According to the official
estimates, it will help educate IT skill to more than 3.4 million students in
Punjab every year. Now the Punjab government has formally launched the mega
project of IT labs in high schools. A total of 4,286 labs have been set up in
public sector high schools with an amount of Rs5 billion. In the next phase, the
project would be extended to middle level schools. The government is going to
introduce the computer education as an elective subject from next calendar year
for the students of class 6 to 8. For this purpose, state of the art
computer labs have been established in the schools in collaboration with the
private sector. Every lab is equipped with a Server, AC, 15 terminals and a
printer. PTCL has provided necessary interlinking facility to arrange for
Internet facilities for these laboratories. The education department has hired a
total of 2436 I.T experts to run the labs and this staff has been given one week
specialized training to enable them to affably educate the students with
dissimilar intellectual horizons. Without compromising on merit and standard
of teaching, the newly recruited IT Teachers and IT Assistants are having MSc
and BSc Computer Science degrees to their credit and it is good that the
government also plans to continue refresher courses for these teachers to make
this scheme a viable achievement. The most important aspect of the project
is that this step is an important achievement to provide easy and free access to
the IT for the students with poor and economically diffident milieus. As we
are a nation with strong socio-moral values, therefore the teachers are directed
to sensitize the students about the usage and abusage of I.T to the nascent
youth so that they could not succumb to any sort of pornography. Experts say
that these laboratories are not limited to teaching only but they would also be
helpful to develop school database. School websites will also be developed which
will be beneficial for the parents for deciding the issue of admissions.
Their websites facility will be equally useful for assessing comparative
grading of different schools. Education in Pakistan is divided into five
levels primary, middle, high, intermediate, and university programmes leading to
graduate and advanced degrees. All academic education institutions are the
responsibility of the provincial governments and the federal government mostly
assists in curriculum development, accreditation and some financing of research.
Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif should further accelerate his efforts
to improve the education system of public sector in all levels. An issue of
National Geographic conveys the adversity poor families must face. Some schools
are run so badly that few kids attend. It's not unusual in Pakistan to hear of
public schools that receive no books, no supplies, and no subsidies from the
government. Thousands more are 'ghost schools' that exist only on paper, to line
the pockets of phantom teachers and administrators." The federal government
should also focus on such issues and award exemplary punishment to those behind
ghost schools and destroying the future of the young generation. We expect
that this unusual initiative taken the Chief Minister Punjab would help bring
revolution in the education sector of the province besides overcoming rural
poverty through skill development.
IT education project
Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the setting up of over 4000
information technology (IT) labs in the schools of the province will uplift IT
activities in the education sector. He said an information technology park will
also be constructed for this purpose and full facilities will be extended to the
private sector. He expressed these views during a briefing by senior
representatives of Microsoft on Friday. He also said that the private sector
would be offered all facilities for IT activities. He said information
technology was essential for speedy development, therefore, the government would
complete the IT labs project in 4286 schools of the province in record time. He
said more than 3.4 million students would benefit from this project annually,
and that IT would also be used for improving the efficiency of government, which
would result in capacity building of government departments. He said his
government wanted the early completion of the land record computerisation
project which had been pending for a long time. He said the government was also
attaching priority to the uplift of education, health, agriculture and law and
order, and Microsoft should develop models for the improvement of these
sectors. Mian Shehbaz certainly has the right ideas, even if they are a
little late. The reason Pakistan cannot take advantage of the IT boom is that
the boom is now a bust. However, IT has become part of life, and it is essential
that people get exposure to modern technology in schools. That in itself
justifies the project. However, Mian Shahbaz should not assume that IT will
create any jobs, and the e-government he contemplates only applies to
populations with a high degree of computer literacy. However, while measures
to improve the IT situation in government schools is welcome, Mian Shehbaz
should pay more attention to those far-flung areas which do not have any
education at all, let alone IT education, and in this regard he must remember
that there can be no IT lab if there is no school. The nation
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AIMC extended B.Sc nursing course admission date
Lahore: The last date for submission of applications for admission to the four-year
duration B.Sc nursing course at the College of Nursing, Allama Iqbal Medical
College/Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, has been extended to December 12 2009 while
interviews will be held on the December 17 2009.
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Students protest against BISE employees strike
Lahore: A number of students intending to appear in the upcoming matriculation
examination 2010 blocked the road outside the Board of Intermediate &
Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore, and protested against the board's employees
for holing pen-down strike. The protesters said they were facing extreme
problems in connection with submission of forms for upcoming exams owing to the
BISE employees' ongoing strike. The board employees are observing pen-down
strike over non-issuance of grants to the boards by the government. It is learnt
officials from the BISE Lahore administrative and management sections are
performing duties of forms collection causing inconvenience for both students
and the officials. The board employees are on strike for indefinite period on
the call of the Employees Federation of Educational Boards Punjab (EFEBP) over
non issuance of grants to the boards following the chief minister's decision to
abolish examination and registration fees of public sector educational
institutions' students. The protesting students said the last date for
submission of forms was approaching fast, adding 'insensitive' attitude on part
of the BISE employees was quite unfortunate. A traffic mess was
witnessed on the Lawrence Road and other adjacent roads for quite sometime owing
to the students' protest demonstration. An official
of the Punjab Higher Education Department said the government had assured the
boards on many occasions that it would provide grants. Such issues usually take
some time as different departments are involved, he said, adding it was
unfortunate that the boards' employees were exploiting the situation.
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Speech contests at GC Pindigheb
Pindigheb: Co-curricular activities like speech contests, debates and essay
writing etc. play a vital role in bringing out the latent qualities of young
students and we are fully aware of our responsibilities in this regard. This
college offers all facilities and proper guidance to its students to prepare
themselves for the challenges of the future. This was said by Malik
Gulab Khan Principal Govt Degree College Pindi Gheb in his address to the
students at the closing ceremony of the speech contests held as per dynamic
policy of the Punjab government. Those who spoke on the occasion
included Prof Mahboob Hussain Vice Principal of the college and Prof Imam Shah
Head of Urdu Department. Prof Bashir Ahmed and Prof Abdul Ghaffar performed the
duties as judges during the contests. Noor Elahi a student of of 2nd
year and Fahim Sajjad also of 2nd year were declared best speakers in English
and Urdu respectively. The news
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