ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked for an overall assessment of the state of IT education in the country’s universities following a national examination that found that 61 percent of IT professionals had scored below 50 percent marks.
Addressing a meeting regarding higher education in the field of IT, the prime minister told the concerned officials to ensure that IT curricula in the universities met international standards, a statement from his office said.
“Young people must be equipped with skills that meet global industry demands,” Shehbaz said, adding that IT education in most universities bore no connection to contemporary technological requirements.
Test Results Expose Deep Skills Gap
The Higher Education Commission recently administered the National Skills Competency Test across 190 universities to measure whether IT graduates actually carried market-relevant skills into the workforce. The numbers that came back were stark.
Out of a total of 33,038 candidates appearing for the test, which was monitored strictly at various test centres in cities in the country, just 0.4% secured more than 80%. A further 3.6% scored in the range of 68-79%, and 13.2% scored in the range of 58-67%. Only 21.3% candidates achieved a score above 50%. The remaining 61 per cent fell below it entirely.
Shehbaz termed the results unsatisfactory and called for urgent reforms.
Audit, Roadmap and a Hard Deadline
The prime minister advised the government officials to carry out an independent audit on computer education and training programs being conducted by universities in order to analyze shortcomings in those programs and suggest remedial actions. Although there was no specified time frame set by the prime minister, he wanted reform proposals as early as possible.
Also Read: 743 Medical College Seats Lie Empty Across Pakistan
That roadmap, he said, must address advanced skills in artificial intelligence, data science, robotics and other emerging fields areas where Pakistani graduates currently show the widest gaps against global benchmarks.
Officials told the meeting that reform work had already begun. Curriculum revision, stronger teaching standards and closer alignment with industry requirements were all underway, they said.
Exports and Investment in the Frame
Shehbaz framed the skills deficit as an economic problem, not merely an academic one. Pakistan’s ability to grow IT exports, attract foreign investment and build a credible digital economy depended directly on the quality of graduates its universities produced, he argued.
Pakistan earned $3.2 billion in IT exports in the last fiscal year a figure the government wants to multiply several times over within the decade. Industry bodies have repeatedly warned that the talent pipeline remains the single biggest constraint on that ambition.
Federal Ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Ahad Khan Cheema and Shaza Fatima Khawaja attended the meeting, along with HEC Chairman Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Chairman Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan and senior officials from relevant institutions.
