islamabad-The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to facilitate government school children with modern technology has established above 200 computer laboratories in a number of educational institutions said Director General of the FDE Hasnat Qureshi on Monday.   

He was addressing an annual awards ceremony for the Learn Smart Pakistan (LSP) challenges organized at a local hotel. While giving the example of other countries that have advanced modern technology, the DG said that currently Singapore is considered the most advanced in technology.  

He suggested that the teachers as well as students in schools /colleges at all levels should encourage others to take full advantage of technology, adding that it was a double edged source of learning.

“It is a fact that the ratio of female teachers in the technology sector is very less as compared to their male counterparts due to various social and cultural barriers which should be increased particularly on primary and secondary level as these are the levels where only the teacher can make a difference”, Qureshi maintained.

According to the details, LSP is a non-profit initiative that was launched in 2014 with the aim of providing quality education for free, it is a digital learning platform for teachers and students from grades 6 to 12. The LSP offers a variety of educational material and virtual practice challenges structured on the Pakistani board exams to its users.

A total of 19,743 people participated in the competitions, more than double the number from the previous year. A geographic distribution shows that 5357 of the total participants were from the Federal Capital Territory area, 8004 were from Punjab, 4252 were from Sindh, 1721 were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 233 were from Balochistan. 88 people from Azad Jammu & Kashmir, 78 from Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 from FATA also took part in the competitions.