TAXILA: Deputy Commissioner Attock Rao Atif Raza on Thursday distributed cheques among 81 talented students of Government Graduate College Attock under Honhaar Undergraduate Scholarship.

Addressing the participants of the event, which was attended by principal of the college Professor Khalid Javed Siddiqui, Deputy Director Colleges Professor Arshad Khan, Vice Principal Government Graduate College Dr Imran Saeed besides a number of students and their parents, the deputy commissioner said that Honhaar Undergraduate Scholarship was the largest scholarship programme in the history of Pakistan under which 30,000 intelligent students of public and private universities will benefit from the scheme.

He said the eligibility criteria regarding family income range has been set with the monthly income of Rs300,000 to support upper middle class families in the programme.

He was of the view that the Scholarship Programme would help in producing the best human resource besides the initiative enabling talented students to pursue higher education at top institutions without financial burden.

“The Punjab government will fully cover the educational costs for deserving students through this programme,” he added.

He said that the fee of the four-year BS degree programme of the students would be paid every year under the scholarship programme and every year new students would also be included in the scheme.

He said that according to the demands of this modern era, youth should study artificial intelligence, graphic designing, freelancing and other IT courses, adding that the district government has taken a number of initiatives to equip the youth with these modern skills.

Mentioning the District Public School of Information Technology as a Centre of Excellence, Mr Raza was of the view that this centre would play a key revolutionary role in the promotion of IT education among the youth of the district.

Later, he distributed cheques to the meritorious students and congratulated them. Apart from this, certificates were also distributed among the students who successfully completed IT skill training under the Learn and Earn programme launched by the district government.

Earlier, addressing the participants Principal Government Graduate College Attock Professor Khalid Javed Siddiqui said that the programme would be a revolution in the field of higher education.

He said the meritorious scholarship programme would produce skilled and quality graduates in various fields.

He said that Government Graduate College Attock secured three positions among 112 colleges across the division in the science fair by presenting innovative science models.

He said that the enrollment target set by the Punjab government was also 100 percent fulfilled, on which the college was awarded a special appreciation certificate by the Punjab Higher Education Department.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2024