LAHORE: Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved free Google certification courses for more than 100,000 students across the province.

Under the initiative, students will not be charged fees ranging from $400 to $1,000 for these courses.

The chief minister also approved the provision of electric bus facilities for college students and gave approval for the establishment of modern information technology laboratories in 166 government colleges across Punjab.

The decision was taken to standardise college education across the province.

In a meeting held to review the progress of School Education and Higher Education Department projects here on Friday, she directed that work on the improvement of schools, including those in Sargodha and other districts, be expedited on an emergency basis.

She ordered that all eligible students be provided stipends under the Honhaar Scholarship Programme.

The meeting was told that for the first time in Punjab’s history, 62,949 students would be awarded scholarships in a single tranche. In the phase-II, visually impaired and other special students would be included.

The meeting also approved the affiliation of all commerce colleges with public sector universities. In this regard, 36 commerce colleges in 29 districts will be linked with 19 universities, and each commerce college will be affiliated with the respective public university in its district.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be introduced for principals, teachers, and vice chancellors of universities to evaluate performance.

“Students of both public and private educational institutions will be provided training in cyber security, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and other short courses of three to six months duration under Google certification programmes.”

The briefing said that 142,000 students had applied for phase-II of the Chief Minister Punjab Laptop Scheme, while 365 graduate students would be awarded scholarships of Rs25,000 each.

Under phase-I of the Honhaar Scholarship Programme, Rs2.38 billion were disbursed among 5,282 students from 262 colleges, while the phase-II allocates Rs1.94 billion for 4,310 students from 200 colleges.

The meeting was also informed that 9.94 million students participated in the PECTAA Grade-8 assessment examinations, with a pass percentage of 92 per cent among girls and 84 per cent among boys.

The chief minister expressed satisfaction over the performance.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2026