Maria Imran 
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched a Chromebook scheme on Sunday to distribute 500,000 devices among talented students from schools and religious seminaries across Pakistan over two years. He told a Prime Minister’s Youth Programme ceremony that access to education and technology should not depend on wealth, and that merit and hard work would be the only selection criteria.
PM Shehbaz Chromebook Scheme Opens Doors for Students
Selected students will also receive bags and MiFi devices to reach the internet, attend online classes and use electronic libraries from home. After a seminary student from Baltistan asked about eligibility, the prime minister confirmed that seminary students are covered.
Building on the Laptop Programme
Shehbaz recalled that around 600,000 laptops were distributed on merit across all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir under the earlier scheme, which took about ten years. The new programme aims to reach 500,000 students in two years, and he said many past beneficiaries became doctors and engineers.
He thanked Rashid Minhas of the Tokyo Care Foundation for his contribution, calling it a sign of overseas Pakistanis’ confidence in the country’s youth. He also noted that 27 more Daanish schools are under construction, offering free education, smart boards and dormitories.
Local Production and the Digital Learning Agenda
Pakistan has also expanded local manufacturing, with Google producing Chromebooks in Haripur since November 2025, with plans for around 600,000 devices a year. An August 2026 agreement adds a year of free access to Gemini and 150,000 Google Career Certificates for young people.
Devices work best alongside teacher training, reliable connectivity and quality digital content, as the provincial move covered in Punjab AI Education shows. Tracking how many students receive devices and how they use them would help the federal government judge the scheme’s impact.
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