KARACHI: Tech Valley Pakistan in partnership with Google has launched the ‘School on Wheels’ programme to educate out-of-school children in the flood-affected areas of Sindh.
Talking exclusively to The Express Tribune at the 23rd ITCN Asia, CEO Tech Valley Pakistan Umer Farooq said that a pilot project had been initiated with five buses with an aim to provide education to around 2,000 students at 50 places in Dadu, Benazirabad, Tharparkar and Omerkot.
“We have provided training to 500 master trainers in these cities to provide education through advanced hardware and software systems to the students,” he added.
Farooq further mentioned, “We are in talks with the Sindh government to initiate similar programme by either hiring buses or allocating spaces to resume education to students in the flood-hit areas.”
There are more than 2,500 schools in different cities, damaged by the floods and torrential rains last year, which would take months or years to be repaired. However, education is an essential and fundamental thing for every kid.
Tech Valley Pakistan in partnership with Google also rolled out various educational programmes in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa providing fundamental and tech-savvy education to some 1,500 students.
Under our initiative, the education programme came up with great facilitation to students. We provided chrome books (like laptops) which could be used for eight straight hours mainly in areas with prolonged power outages. The educational videos are viewed once and can be utilised again by the student without the Internet. The chrome books with pre-installed features can be used by students only for educational purposes during their study hours.
He suggested that the government should ensure the affordability and connectivity of the Internet in different cities in order to enhance digital literacy across the country.
Umar Farooq said Tech Valley also launched 5,000 scholarship programmes in collaboration with Google in which 3,000 students were already enrolled in nine different professional courses. These students, assessed and certified by Google, will be provided training of soft skills in the second phase. In the final phase, the job placement of these skilled students will be managed in different IT companies.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2023.