he State Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Balighur Rehman on Thursday distributed laptops among toppers in the intermediate examinations.

He also attended the closing ceremony of a workshop on education assessment where he said that scholarships for high achieving matric and intermediate students has been increased to 50,000 a year in order to encourage them.

He also announced that high achievers will be provided a Qarz-i-Hasna for their higher studies which they will return Spc per year after they started their jobs and the loan will not be subject to interest.

`The amount returned will be used to provide loans to other students,` he explained. He appreciated the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Chairman Dr Ikram Malik and Prof Norman Reid from the University of Glasgow for conducting the workshop.

While distributing laptops among top position holders, he said that in the next phase of the project, students will be given laptops and an increased cash prize.

The prize for the students who secure the top three positions in matric exams has been increased to Rs100,000, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 and for intermediate students, this amount will be Rs200,000, Rs150,000 and Rs100,000 for the first three positions.

`We have to improve our exams systems by curbing the habit of cheating in exams and promoting the concept of learning concepts,` he added.

-By Kashif Abbasi