By Abdul Ghani

A $100 million Asian Development Bank-funded program is on track in the Punjab to strengthen STEM education in public secondary schools through June 2030, according to the documents available with Wealth Pakistan.

The initiative is part of a broader $200 million drive to improve education and workforce skills in Pakistan's most populous province.

The Responsive, Ready and Resilient STEM Secondary Education in Punjab program, scheduled to run from December 2025 to June 2030, aims to improve access to quality STEM education, particularly for girls, while upgrading school infrastructure, laboratories and teacher training.

According to the documents, the program will increase enrolment in Grades 9 and 10 by at least 50,000 students, with girls accounting for at least half of the additional enrolments. It also envisages constructing or renovating multipurpose STEM laboratories in at least 2,300 schools and equipping them with modern software and laboratory equipment.

The project includes training at least 10,000 teachers in STEM and green skills, establishing STEM and green skills clubs expected to benefit around 40,000 girls, strengthening school leadership, and outsourcing laboratory management in at least 100 schools to private-sector partners.

The STEM initiative is intended to improve learning outcomes and better prepare students with the technical and analytical skills needed for a rapidly evolving economy.

The program complements the $100 million Improving Workforce Readiness in Punjab project, which began in February 2023 and is scheduled for completion in August 2029.

That initiative seeks to bridge the gap between technical education and labour market demand by upgrading 19 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutes into Centres of Excellence and training around 37,000 students in eight priority sectors, including automotive, information technology, tourism, food processing, textiles, construction, healthcare and light engineering.

It will also provide market-based training to about 90,000 students and upgrade Punjab's TVET management and labour market information systems (LMIS) to improve workforce planning and provide more timely labour market information to policymakers, employers and education providers.

Together, the two ADB-financed projects represent a $200 million investment in Punjab's education and skills development, aimed at strengthening human capital and producing a workforce better equipped to meet the demands of a modern economy.

Credit: INP-WealthPk