Class XII pupils of Punjab to get cellphones 

Smartphones will be distributed among Class XII students of government schools in the state on August 12, the International Youth Day.

Not all students would get phones on the first day due to the pandemic.

The rest would be given mobile phones at school level.

Sources in the School Education Department said 1,877 government senior secondary schools in the state had about 1.73 lakh Class XII students and there was a target to distribute smartphones to all these students by the end of November.

Since the closure of all schools in the state from mid-March due to Covid-19, the School Education Department had started online classes. But as most of the students in government schools belong to economically weaker section, in the absence of smartphones they were facing problems in taking online classes.

International Youth Day is an awareness day designated by the United Nations. The purpose of the day is to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth. The first IYD was observed on 12 August, 2000.