ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Minister of State for IT & Telecom, Mrs. Anusha Rehman said that for true materialization of our vision of “Accelerated Digitization” it becomes imperative that all those ICT opportunities which are available to the private sector school’s students should also be made available to the public sector school children. She stated this while having a consultation session with the State Minister for CADD Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry here at MoIT Islamabad today. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss mechanism for “ICT & Digital Content Development for Public Sector Schools”. Senior officials from MoIT & CADD, representatives from Microsoft and Cisco were also present in the meeting.
Anusha Rehman said that we are living in a technologically advance era that’s why we are working on the concept of “Digital Pakistan”. Therefore, it is dire need of the time that we should encourage our kids to start learning modern ICT skills like coding and app development starting from primary school. It will be a complete “Paradigm Shift” that will going the road prepare our young generation to use ICT which will eventually enhance the volume of entrepreneurship and employ ability potential. Microsoft and Cisco have consented to partner with the government in this content development program while Ministry of IT being an enabler is ready to provide all possible assistance to the CADD in this new endeavor.
State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said that CADD is going to upgrade schools in federal capital within next year and ICT infrastructure and connectivity will also be provided to these schools.
It was decided in the meeting that a “Joint Working Group” will be constituted immediately. This working group will be headed by JS (Education) CADD, a Senior Member from MoIT and one representative from Microsoft and Cisco each will also be included in the group. CADD will formally issue its notification.
It is also pertinent to mention that Cisco agreed to provide ICT trainings to the teachers in content to be developed for grade 6 to onward, while Microsoft will provide assistance to the junior level schools from class one to five and will also provide downloadable content related to ICT free of cost. NITB has been assigned to coordinate with NTC to acquire data hosting facility for this pilot project.