Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday issued directives to formulate an immediate strategy to make information technology a mandatory topic from class 6 and horsemen across the country.

The Prime Minister was chairman of a high-level review meeting on the issues relating to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications, emphasizing that promoting the IT sector and growth in IT-related exports were among the government’s highest priorities, a Prime Minister’s office said in the office.

“The inclusion of it in the school’s curricula is crucial to preparing our future generations to the demands of the digital economy,” Prime Minister Shehbaz said, calling for a unified effort with provincial governments to ensure quality and standardized IT education and education in school, college and university level.

The Prime Minister further instructed the Ministry to initiate IT training programs in underdeveloped regions, especially in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Balochistan.

Officials from the Ministry informed the Prime Minister in detail about current initiatives and upcoming projects. Under “School Broadband Connectivity Project” Internet infrastructure is upgraded in Islamabad schools.

The meeting was informed that the Ministry of 2024–2025 has already provided advanced IT education to 49,800 individuals and general education for over 600,000 people.

In collaboration with Huawei, skills and vocational education centers are established at International Islamic University Islamabad, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) and Comats University Lahore Campus.

In addition, Huawei’s advanced workouts in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data and cyber security are integrated into the curricula for Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (Topi), University of Engineering and Technology (Taxila) and Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (Jamshoro).

The Ministry of Federal Education and vocational education in partnership with Huawei will also provide education to 146,367 students and upgrade 1,300 laboratories across the country. This initiative is expected to benefit students, especially in Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting attended the Federal Minister of Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, Federal Minister of IT and Telecommunications Shaza Fatima Khawaja, President of the PM youth program Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, High -ranking Officers and Huawei Ceo Ethan Sun.

International standard skills

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the government prioritized the efforts to equip the country’s workforce with skills and education adapted to international standards. He spoke with a seven-member delegation of the Association of Chartered Certified Accounts (ACCA) led by its CEO Helen Brand OBE, who called him to the PM house.

During the meeting, the delegation highlighted an important role that ACCA played for the development of Pakistan’s economy.

The delegation informed the Prime Minister that ACCA’s 13,000 Pakistani members served worldwide in various sectors, while about 40,000 students were in the process of receiving membership of the ACCA.