Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday launched the PM Youth Chromebook Scheme in Islamabad, under which 500,000 refurbished Chromebooks and internet devices will be given to students across Pakistan. At the ceremony, he handed out laptops and internet devices to high-performing Grade 9 students and seminary students.
Calling students the country's real asset, the prime minister said "500,000 Chromebooks will be distributed in two years". Talent and hard work, he said, were not tied to wealth or poverty, adding that at least 27 Danish schools were being built across the country with all services free of charge. PM's Youth Programme chairman Rana Mashhood said the Tokyo Technology Care Foundation had stepped in to supply the devices.
Who is eligible?
According to officials, the scheme is run by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training with the PM's Youth Programme. Selection is merit-based: students will be ranked on their latest SSC-I (Grade 9) results, verified by the Inter Boards Coordination Commission, and must have scored at least 50%. Students of public schools, private schools funded through provincial education foundations, and registered madaris are all eligible.
Punjab has been allocated 181,090 devices, Sindh 85,925, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 51,170 and Balochistan 31,815, while Islamabad gets 100,000 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan 25,000 each. In every region, four of every five devices go to school students and one to madrassa students; among school students, 70% go to science and 30% to arts.
Officials say each device will be tied to its recipient by serial number and couriered directly, with a central system tracking every delivery. Grievance committees will be set up at board and provincial level, and a contracted firm will handle repairs after the first year. For many teenagers who have never owned a laptop, the scheme could be their first real door into digital learning.