Provincial Minister for Education, Sports and Youth Affairs Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan witnessed the renewal ceremony of Telenor Global Countdown Agreement between Telenor and Environmental Protection Department Punjab held here today at Children Library Complex. Secretary EPD Anwar Rasheed and Vice President Telenor Pakistan inked the agreement worth rupees 12.5 million cost which will facilitate 1500 students of 350 different public sector schools of the province. Addressing the renewal ceremony, Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan emphasized the need to give a widespread awareness to the youth about the pollutants which erode our society and the youth should be given a chance to reach mobile based learning solutions. If we want to make concrete advancement in educational field, we should refrain to adopt rote learning and should empower the youth through ethical and inter-active strategic role play like Telenor Global Countdown so that they should be enabled to differentiate between good and bad, particularly in the sphere of environmental protection. The Minister gave all credit to the Regional Head of Telenor Nasir Imam who had floated the idea of computerized tablets for the school going children above the age of ten years in all the public sector schools of Punjab where the government provides cost-free curricular books to the needy students. The Minister said that the Punjab government has decided to adopt these tablets as a tool of learning by uploading all the curricular material in them. The Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has decided to provide these cost-free tablets to 55000 public sector schools in Punjab in a phased programme, he added.
Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan revealed that the Punjab government has recruited 75000 educators last year and a recruitment of further 80000 educators will be done to accomplish the target of 100% literacy rate in the province in the next three years. He applauded the vision of Mian Shahbaz Sharif for launching the laptop scheme and solar lamps free distribution to attract the brilliant students. This will also help reduce the dropout rate in the far flung areas of the province. He further revealed that DFID has given consent to provide a grant in aid to the tune of Rs.351 million to construct 15000 additional class rooms, one additional class room for each public sector school having deficient facilities, this year.
Vice President Telenor Pakistan Aslam Hayat in his address stressed upon strengthening the foundations of public sector schools education. He announced “Internet for All” programme by the Telenor and said, if we invest for the future generations, it would pave the way forward for sustainable development in Pakistan.
Director Communication Telenor Atifa Asghar, Secretary EPD Anwar Rasheed and Project Director Children Library Complex Shaahra Shahid also spoke on the occasion and thanked the Telenor for fulfilling its corporate social responsibility in an effective manner.