Govt mulls developing mobile apps to boost education sector

While the world looks for a disrupting Uber-like startup in the education industry, Pakistan has started thinking about developing basic mobile apps to produce academic content and mobilize distant learning.

With advancement in technology and the excessive role of mobile apps in almost every walk of life, it has become imminent to take support from the mobile technology for the education sector of Pakistan to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In a recent international conference on ‘Collective Action for Knowledge Economy with Technology (CAKE-Tech) in Islamabad, the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood emphasized on developing mobile apps and contents for achieving SDGs. The basic concept of conducting this conference was to finalize a timeline to expedite education sector of the country by using innovative tools from the technology industry.

The conference was hosted by Pakistan’s first distant learning institute Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) with the collaboration of UMT, UVAS and Qarshi University. Foreign delegates and the country’s renowned academicians participated in the conference.

Mr. Shafqat Mehmood hoped that educationalists and distant-learning institutes will play an important role in developing quality content which would be delivered through smartphone applications. The minister further stated;

“The idea of using mobile technology for the purpose of educating and helping the masses to participate in socio-economic development is a very timely and innovative approach. To enhance educational access to the rural area, the mobilization of technology will be imperative to overcome illiteracy problem.”

When it comes to mobile apps, there’s a wide range of software and applications which fall under the umbrella of education. However, it is not clear at this stage that which sort of apps will be the primary focus of the government initially.

Minister also stated that the smart use of technology in the field of education such as AI-powered gadgets, educational software and mobile apps of different academical courses would certainly change the mindset of people who still believe in conventional methods of learning.