Pakistan has the largest number of out-of-school children. The current state of education in Pakistan is abysmal with over 25 million children out of school between the age of 5 to 16. To better understand this, 1 out of every 12 out-of-school children in the world is a Pakistani child. Such is the sad state of affairs and the government hasn’t done enough to counter this issue. With the speed of progress, one can expect more than 5 decades to get these children to schools.
However, there are a lot of individuals who have started schools to facilitate education of children in their vicinity. One such school is Alma Mater. Headed by a LUMS graduate, Fahad Bin Farooq, the school teachers and curriculum is forward thinking. It is employing educational softwares and tools used in international schools to impart knowledge to the children. Although a humble and limited effort, the school has noticed tremendous effect of digital learning, with students learning their lessons more quickly and taking interest in education.
Not only this, Fahad believes in spreading knowledge of digital tools and softwares to everyone. Hence, the school is organizing a 4-day event claimed as Pakistan’s first ICT Olympiad from 3rd to 8th Grade. The event is not just targeting these young minds but also there are workshops specially organized for school teachers to help them learn digital softwares. The learning imparted to teachers will be more helpful, as these teachers will then be able to utilize it and engage the students as well.
During the Olympiad, the teachers will be able to learn Edmodo (Facebook for schools), Scratch (Coding software to make games), Cloudmentor and other tools. Whereas, students will be able to learn website development, digital presentations, story boarding and other fun yet full of knowledge tools.
While talking to TechJuice, Fahad Bin Farooq said,
“Ever since we embraced technology at Alma Mater we have seen a vast improvement in how students learn, interact and respond to different things. Through our ICT Olympiad, we want to create a tradition of providing knowledge which is fun and according to international standards”, he further added, “At our event, we will also let the students experience virtual reality through Pakistan’s first virtual reality educational video.”
The registration deadline is 15th March and the event will happen on 24th to 27th March. You can check out details of the event and registration process here.
Source — Alma Mater School
