Islamabad - Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) yesterday held a ceremony to distribute laptops among position holder students. Laptops have been awarded to top three position holders in the HSSC examinations on the directions of President of Pakistan.

A female position holder student, while talking to The Nation, expressed joy on receiving the laptop and said: “It is exciting to receive laptop as it is also the symbol of encouragement.”

Chief guest Minister of State for Federal Education Engineer Muhammad Baligh ur Rehman congratulated the students and appreciated their hard work.

The minister also said that the amount of scholarships for bright students has been increased to 50,000 per year to encourage students.  “Prize money for top three positions in matric examinations has been increased as Rs10,000 would be awarded to first position holder, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 to third position holder,” he said.

While for intermediate level, the amount has been increased to Rs2,00,000 for securing first position, Rs1,50,000 for second and Rs10,000 for the third place. “All top three position holders will get laptops along with the prize money,” he added.  More, he said, the students would be provided with Qarz-e-Hasna without any interest for their higher studies and they would return the amount at 5 per cent interest after starting their jobs. “The return amount would be used for other students,” he said. 

Along with laptop distribution ceremony, the education assessment workshop held by the FBISE to bring improvement in the education system was also concluded.

The chief guest admired the efforts of FBISE Chairman Dr Ikram and Professor Norman Reid from University of Glasgow for successfully conducting the workshop.

The minister remarked: “Training manuals have been developed at the FBISE which is a great achievement”.

He also stated that system of trainings, evaluations and assessments are improving while Pakistan is also going to adopt international assessment systems like PISA and TIMSS by 2019. “No planning can be done without the assessment of the ground situation,” he said.

He further added that one window operation system and issuance of online roll number slip are great initiatives taken by the FBISE. Minister of State Engr Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman attended the closing ceremony of workshop on Education Assessment.