LAHORE, Dec 24: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday presented with a heavy heart in the wake of floods calamity slashed cash prizes to top position holders in matriculation and intermediate annual examinations from Punjab as well as Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
The top position holders in boys and girls categories in matriculation and intermediate annual examinations for 2010 from all the four provinces were given Rs100,000 each, while the second and third position holders were given Rs75,000 and Rs50,000, respectively, at a distribution ceremony at Allama Iqbal Medical College auditorium on Friday.
Overall 361 top three position holders from Punjab’s all eight boards of intermediate and secondary education and 31 overall top three position holders from other three provinces were given prizes. The position holders’ institutional heads were also given Rs50,000, Rs35,000 and Rs25,000 for first, second and third positions, respectively.
Explaining the diversion of most funds for the rehabilitation of flood-hit people, Sharif promised that next year, provided he remained the chief minister, he would offer Rs400,000 cash prizes to the top position holders for the year 2010 as the Punjab government had given in the previous years.
He also announced that he had decided to present Rs600,000 and Rs400,000 to the top position holders in science and arts categories, respectively, in the matriculation and intermediate annual examinations for 2011. “I will be ready to even sell my coat for the cause of education,” he added.
The chief minister said that he was stressing science education because it was an age where science and technology were the basic tools to excel and added that every country was fighting a war of economics. Only with the help of science and technology, he said, now China was able to dictate its terms in the comity of nations. Still, he said, China’s prime minister was so humble during his visit to Pakistan that he continued stating that China was a developing economy.
Sharif also announced that the Punjab government would establish four more Daanish schools in backward areas of the province in 2011.
He said that Daanish schools had been provided all resources to impart quality education so that their students could compete with students of elite grammar schools as well as top universities like LUMS, FCCU and FAST. “The Daanish schools will excel in every sense of the word, where admission of students belonging to elite class would be banned,” he said.
He said that the poor but talented children must be provided opportunities so that they could hone their God-gifted abilities and excel in their lives.
The chief minister lauded the students for excelling in their studies and assured them that all available resources would be provided for them to continue their quality education. The chief minister also lauded the students, who were orphans or their parents were doing labour to run their families, by calling their name.
Top position holders from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fazal Ahmad Hashmi, a ClassVI student at Rahim Yar Khan Daanish School, and columnists Munnoo Bhai, Attaul Haq Qasmi and Irfan Siddiqui also spoke on the occasion.
Earlier, the top position holders visited the Punjab University and met vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran and learnt about university’s academic and research programmes.
GCU: GCU’s debating society has won the All-Pakistan Bilingual Declamation Contest hosted by the Pakistan Air Force Academy, Risalpur, for the eighth time in 16 years.
The team consisting of Ali Zafar and Saadul Hasan defeated 71 teams from Karachi to Karakuram. In the individual category, Ali Zafar turned out to be the best English humorous speaker. Usman Leghari from the Lahore School of Economics was declared the best English serious speaker. In Urdu, Rehan Tariq from the UET, Lahore, and Saad were declared the top two speakers.
No comments:
Post a Comment