DADU, Dec 18: A grant of Rs1 million was announced on Tuesday for the welfare of employees of the Cadet College Petaro Jamshoro by Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Muhammad Shafiq.

He made the announcement while speaking as a chief guest on the 51st Annual Parents Day held on Tuesday. In his speech, the Vice Admiral Shafiq said that in order for the country to progress and meet the challenges of modern age there was a need to produce educated and enlightened young people who had sound character and were true patriots.

Praising the role of the college, Vice Admiral Shafiq said that the standard of education imparted by the college could be judged by the calibre of young men produced by the college who were successful in every walk of life.

He congratulated the college principal and his team for being able to achieve good results in academics, sports and extracurricular activities.

Vice Admiral Shafiq awarded the Stick of Honour to the former chairman of honour committee, Noman Sharif, the Badge of Honour to cadet Raja Arsalan Ahmed and the Medal of Honour to former cadet Captain Furqan Qamar. Among other awards, he presented the award for Best Sportsman to former cadet Ahmed Nawaz, award for Best Teacher to Prof Sharafat Ali, award for Best Staff Officer to Assistant Prof. Ahmed Ali Kazi and award for the Best Employee to Muhammad Bux. He also awarded a gold medal to cadet Arsalan Ahmed while a bronze medal was awarded to cadet Bilal Zafar. The Dr Sir Ziauddin Ahmed Gold Medal was awarded to cadet M. Faizan Bin Abid.

In his welcome address, the commandant and principal of the college, Commodore Muhammad Afzal, said that with over 900 cadets studying in the Cadet College Petaro, it was the largest cadet college of Pakistan.

He said that the college had achieved excellent results in Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC). According to him, out of 193 cadets, 190 had secured A-I grade marks while the remaining three had clinched A grade marks in SSC part-II examinations. In HSC part-II examinations, out of 178 candidates, 63 had clinched A-I grade marks, 108 had secured A grade marks and the remaining seven cadets had bagged B grade marks.

Comodore Afzal said that the college had inducted two teachers from China in 2010 for teaching the Chinese language as per the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari. He said that Chinese language was being taught to cadets in grade seven and eight, and also to O level students.