ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Youth Programme Chairperson Leila Khan on Sunday revealed that 500,000 laptops would be distributed among talented and deserving students by the year 2020 along with broadband Internet devices across the country to improve their learning through technology. The federal government’s initiative taken in 2014, under the Prime Minister’s Scheme for the provision of laptops, was aimed at encouraging and supporting deserving students to digitalise the mode of studies in public sector universities, she said. The scheme’s primary objective was to assist students from middle and lower middle class to use latest qualitative tools for their research studies. Research and public relations officer Abdul Shakir informed that the scheme was targeted to facilitate 100,000 students per year for which an amount of Rs 5.1 billion and Rs 21.3 billion was earmarked for the Fiscal Year 2013-14 and FY 2014-2018 respectively. He said that a single laptop costs Rs 44,000, so the government would be investing billions of rupees to secure the future of the young generation of the country. Abdul Shakir said some 200,000 more laptops would be distributed in the next two years, taking the total figure to 500,000 adding that 300,000 laptops had been distributed until date. Higher Education Commission (HEC) Regional Coordinator Qaim Ali Shah, while highlighting the salient features of the scheme, said it prioritised MS and PhD students as their studies involved research work. The scheme, which earlier covered all provinces, was extended through the HEC to the Islamabad Capital Territory and FATA on the direction of the Senate Standing Committee in 2014. Recently, Diploma Associate Engineers were also included in the scheme by the government, said the former Sindh chief minister. An MPhil student, Ishtiaq Khattak, called the facility an educational boom for students going through their research in qualitative higher education. The wireless broadband device being provided along with the laptop is also useful as it’s worth 20GB in Rs 500 and is sufficient for a student as compared to other Internet packages being offered in the market. Published in Daily Times, February 26th 2018.