BRIDGING THE DIGITAL SKILLS AND LITERACY GAP

Pakistan: smart schools offer bright future

Saira Ali
Grade nine student

Education now means something different to Saira Ali, a year nine student in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. Since joining the Jazz Smart School programme, Saira has experienced what she describes as an “extraordinary” change of learning environment.

“I absolutely love the friendly atmosphere that has been created between students and teachers”, she says. “My grades have improved since I started taking these assessments from the Jazz Smart School programme. Learning has become more fun, especially with the games. Everyone loves to learn more every day. Our teachers also get to focus more on each student’s individual needs.”

Of the population of 200 million people, approximately 43% under 15 years old are not as fortunate as Saira. According to Pakistan’s 2018 Education Statistics Report, almost 23 million school-age children – including 12 million girls – are not in any form of education. For those who are being educated, basic numeracy and literacy skills often lag behind international benchmarks.

To help improve digital skills and literacy among female students, Jazz – the country’s largest mobile operator – launched the Jazz Smart School Programme in 2017.

It uses mobile technology to improve teaching quality and accountability with techniques such as app-based performance dashboards and web-portals to track results.

By the end of 2018, more than 25,000 female students aged between 12 and 16, along with 600 female teachers across 75 public-sector schools in Islamabad have benefitted from the Jazz Smart School programme. Evaluation has shown significant improvements in learning outcomes, teaching quality, student engagement, technology users, accountability, and results monitoring.

Ali Raza

Prime Minister's Adviser - Education Reform Programme