Daily Times

The struggle to improve the educational system of Pakistan requires an improvement of the technological and digital infrastructure in the rural, and urban educational centres. The educational setup of all the provinces requires the development of a digital learning base for everyone irrespective of gender, and age. The onset of the pandemic of COVID-19 oversaw a need to develop the digital learning infrastructure of the country whereby the lockdowns led to the closure of the educational institutes and switched over to the concept of online learning.

It is disillusioning to note that Pakistan has shown quite slow progress in adapting the advanced technological standards, especially in the educational sector owing to the hefty expense associated with it. Pakistan is classified in the bottom quarter of the Inclusive Internet Index which is useful in the evaluation of the country’s access, cost-affordability, and flexibility to adapt the technological advancement. The gender gap also poses troubles whereby merely 19% of the females of the Pakistani population have access to the digital internet in contrast with 37% of the males of the Pakistani population having access to it. Such issues need to be addressed, and the efforts invested by our nation’s government are noteworthy; Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology initiated the Digital Pakistan Policy in 2017 with an underlying objective of enhancing the utility of information technology in all diverse sectors including education.

Merely 19% of the females of the Pakistani population have access to the internet.

?Digital Pakistan’s Policy has aimed to grow the liaison between the public, and the private sector through the inclusion of information technology extensively followed by accessibility software facilitating online learning, and hosting competitive exams. The incentive also aims at providing subsidies on the implementation of the technological infrastructure aiming to enhance the digital ways to access learning using digital tools. The work on the provision of IT services and infrastructure was further enhanced by the due efforts of the Punjab Government to establish the Punjab Information Technology Board with an underlying goal of boosting the digital internet connection. Nevertheless, the work on this venture slowed following the change in the government in 2018 leading to time lags in the execution of the policies, and practices pertinent to digital advancement, and growth. This accompanied by certain ethical restrictions led to a ban by the government on digital infrastructure such as YouTube, and Wikipedia on the notions of these being declared as blasphemous, and offensive slowing digital growth.

.?The intervention of the private sector is inevitable for the improvement of the digital infrastructure in the country particularly in the field of education. The private sector owns massive financial and human resources for leveraging technological advancements in the field of education to attain quality in its operations. There must be extensive efforts by the private sector to ensure digitization for people with disabilities though many initiatives have been launched at present in collaboration with the private sector composed of the Aziz Jehan Begum Trust & Institute and the Special Talent Exchange Program, and the Pakistan Association of the Deaf. Such initiatives tend to make the education meaningful, relevant, and accessible for the impaired students, and the staff members.

?On the whole, it is important to understand the fact that quality education is indispensable for all to ensure the economic prosperity and advancement of Pakistan. The need to make stringent efforts to be invested for quality digitization of the public, and the private sector’s educational setup is direly required in addition to mitigating the gender gap in the educational sector. Such measures are required to achieve paramount excellence in adopting digital learning extensively in Pakistan.

The writer can be reached at aiyza.javaid@gmail.com