Chromebook Scheme Eligibility: Who Can Apply, Region by Region

Most of the confusion around the Prime Minister's Youth Chromebook Scheme comes down to one question: am I eligible? The honest answer is "it depends on your board" — and this guide explains exactly what that means, province by province, so you can check your own position in about two minutes. For the full picture of the scheme first, start with our Chromebook scheme overview.

The two rules that apply everywhere

Before the regional detail, two conditions hold for every student in Pakistan.

Rule one: government or public school only. You must be enrolled in a government/public school. Private school students are not eligible under the current rules — this is the single most common reason hopeful students are turned away, and no marks score changes it.

Rule two: you must be a top performer in the Annual Examinations 2026. Your board prepares a list of its top-performing students and sends it to IBCC. If your name is on your board's list, your record appears on the application portal. If it isn't, the portal won't find you — and the only route is through your board, as explained below.

Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan: Grade 9 only

Under the boards of the four provinces — the nine Punjab boards (Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, DG Khan and Sahiwal), the Sindh boards including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa boards such as Peshawar, Abbottabad, Swat, Malakand, Kohat, Bannu, Mardan and DI Khan, and the Balochistan board in Quetta — eligibility is limited to top-performing Grade 9 (SSC-I) students from the Annual Examinations 2026.

If you are in Grade 10 in one of these provinces, you are not covered in this phase, even if you topped your board. That feels unfair to many students, and it's the question we see most often — but the published criteria are clear, and planning around a rule that doesn't exist helps nobody.

AJK, Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan: Grade 9 and Grade 10

The boards of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (BISE Mirpur), the Federal Board in Islamabad (FBISE, covering the Islamabad Capital Territory and federal institutions), and Gilgit-Baltistan cover both Grade 9 (SSC-I) and Grade 10 (SSC-II) top performers. If you sat your matric exams under one of these boards in 2026 and finished among its top students, both classes can apply.

What "top-performing" actually means

There is no single nationwide marks cutoff. The scheme does not say "90 percent and above" for the whole country. Each board decides its own criteria — how many students it lists, and where it draws the line — based on its own results.

In practice that means a percentage that earns a Chromebook under one board may fall short under another. Boards with very high-scoring students draw higher effective lines. So don't compare your marks with a cousin in another board's area; compare them with your own board's list, which is the only list that counts for you. Our quota and delivery explainer shows how the fixed number of devices is shared out, which is part of why boards set their own lines.

Seminary students

Madrasa students are part of the scheme too. One out of every five devices is reserved for seminary students, so registered seminary students who meet their stream's criteria are covered alongside school students. The exact listing process for seminaries runs through their own boards and administrations.

"My record is not found" — what it means and what to do

If the portal can't find your record, work through this order:

First, check your inputs. Numbers only, no dashes, and try a different identifier — your roll number if the B-Form number failed, or your registration number. A surprising share of "not found" cases are typing mismatches with the board record, including a date of birth recorded differently at school.

Second, ask your school. Your school can confirm whether your name went forward in the board's list and whether the details match.

Third, go to your board. If you genuinely topped your class and your name is missing, that's a non-inclusion case — exactly what the board and provincial complaint committees handle. Take your result card with you.

Quick self-check

• Government/public school student? If no — not eligible.
• Grade 9 in Punjab, Sindh, KP or Balochistan, with top Annual Examinations 2026 results? Eligible if your board listed you.
• Grade 9 or 10 under AJK, Federal or Gilgit-Baltistan boards, with top results? Eligible if your board listed you.
• Not sure if you're listed? Check your record on the official portal — it takes a few minutes.

Still unsure where you stand? The disclaimer page explains the limits of any guide, and the official portal is always the final word. Check your record first; most students who read this page are two minutes away from a definite answer.