The Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Muhammad Atif Khan, says that the provincial government plans to establish 1300 IT labs in the province until the next elections.
He said that Information Technology has played an important role in development of the country. The KP government is taking measures to ensure its spread across the province.
The minister said this during the E-Pakistan conference at Sarhad University of Information Technology on Saturday. He added that the government has established 500 IT labs in the province so far. They plan to establish another 500 IT labs by next year.
Rs. 1.5 billion has been allocated for their establishment.
According to the provincial Education Minister, there were a total of 180 IT labs before the current ruling party (PTI) took charge. Mr. Atif said that they plan to establish 1300 labs by the end of their tenure.
He appreciated Sarhad University’s efforts to extend the E-Peshawar project to an E-Pakistan project. While addressing the audience during the conference, Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Dr. Saleem-ur-Rehman said that Sarhad University is providing modern education to its students.
Considering the amount of “ghost schools” and funds attributed towards establishment of schools and salaries of the staff getting squandered due to corruption, this is a welcome step to remedy that.
However, this isn’t just an issue of merely throwing more money at a problem, but more about ensuring that it is put to better use. Ensuring the establishment of more IT labs is admirable, but it will need trained and skilled teachers to make judicious use of those facilities. Nonetheless the effort is appreciable.
Currently less than 3% of the national budget is allocated towards education which is in stark comparison with the amounts allocated to the defense budget and debt servicing. If we are to ensure our children’s fuure, education needs to become a huge priority at both the governmental and societal levels.
Via Pak Observer
