The COVID-19 pandemic affected 600 million children all across the globe. The situation was especially bad for countries lying in the Asia-Pacific region where the children went through around 200 days of school closure.
The situation was worse for the Eastern and South African children where more than 40% of the children aged between 5 and 18 are out of school. Even though virtual learning was planned by educational institutions across the globe, it was not very fruitful in the developing region because it was out of reach for the children. In the East Asia and Pacific region alone, 80 million children had no access to pursue remote learning.
Without internet connectivity, the students of Uganda went through more than 300 days out of school. However, the situation was different for the children of Pakistan. Pakistan took innovative measures by adopting EdTech to ensure that the students stay in touch with their education by taking the help of television, radio, and mobile phones.
Television proved to be the best option for remote learning
In Pakistan, television proved to be the most viable option as a remote learning tool in Pakistan. It is because 95% of the residents of Pakistan have access to television and training the teacher for the same is easier. Pakistan planned an emergency education planning by bringing together Pakistan’s Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and School Education Department to ensure the education of the children.
During the pandemic, Punjab rolled out Taleem Ghar, an educational television program for providing remote learning for its students. This educational program was immediately followed by another federal education television program TeleSchool across the country.
Staying in touch with the lessons is especially helpful for the students who are preparing for interviews for pursuing Government Jobs to get a better Sarkari Result. The World Bank also supported educational programs like Knowledge Packs to help the policymakers to further help the students.
Two projects of the World Bank helped Pakistan in helping to make relevant policymakers by financing Pandemic Response Effectiveness in Pakistan and Third Punjab Education Sector Project. Education TV in Pakistan curated content on the basis of demand which was available on mobile apps, websites, and YouTube channels. To make it interesting for the students to pursue their learning, teacher characters like Miss DNA, Miss Curie, and Mr. Khawarizmi Were introduced.
Training of the faculties
For ensuring the success of the Education TV, the subject experts, public school teachers, and other specialists for developing the television lessons and scripts for the same while taking into consideration the curriculum of the national and provincial dealing with the educational content. In addition to that, the teachers were also trained to support mass communication campaigns for making this program a success.
The government also worked on creating public awareness and support by releasing teaser videos and making announcements in local mosques and advertising in newspapers. Also, public figures like the Prime Minister were used to spread awareness.
It was challenging for the government to coordinate the different players in assembling them to create content and release the same. Education TV has been a huge success in Pakistan and it served as a global role model. Many countries only considered remote learning through laptops or mobile phones along with internet connectivity without accessing the digital connectivity in the region. Pakistan avoided this mistake, it accessed the internet connectivity of the country and then decided that remote learning should be ensured using the television.
Teleschool has proved to be a huge success in Pakistan and it can be further strengthened even after the pandemic to strengthen the education system of the country. In the coming time, Education TV should also focus on building the cognitive skills and language skills of the students.
It can also prove to be a vital tool in improving the literacy rate of the country. Also, it is important to take care of the feedback of the students to further strengthen the model. Till now, Pakistan has presented a global role model with its Education TV.
This is a model that the regions with connectivity issues of the internet should apply, if the accessibility of television is good in it. This will be extremely helpful in ensuring the learning of the students.