Startup Weekend Lahore brings brilliant ideas to improve Education in Pakistan

Startup Weekend Lahore is currently underway at LUMS. After a very successful event in March this year, Startup Weekend is back with a special focus on Education. The event is being presented by LUMS Centre for Entrepreneurship and Ilm Ideas 2.

Education innovators from all over Pakistan who have a vision to empower our education system with creative solutions and innovative ideas have gathered at Startup Weekend Lahore to exchange their views. No only that, participants are getting a chance to meet with startup coaches, mentors, and industry influentials who can help them materialize their ideas.

Yesterday, all participants pitched their ideas to an enthusiastic crowd. Here’s an overview of the shortlisted ideas:

1. SS Gamification/Games Ed

SS Gamification and Games Ed were pitched as two separate ideas which were ultimately grouped due to their similar nature. SS Gamification wants to gamify subjects related to Social Sciences in order to increase interest in them. Games Ed, on the other hand, is focusing on a broader spectrum. They feel that the quality of education at secondary and higher levels is not good enough. They want to build games that will not only enhance the quality of education but also enhance a student’s concepts.

2. Deeqa/School Evaluation and Quality Assurance

Most of the schools in Pakistan lack proper evaluation and quality assurance. Deeqa, presented by Raiha Fareed, aims to develop a department of education development and quality evaluation to improve Pakistan’s education system. School Evaluation and Quality Assurance wants to automate the process by making a software for school evaluation and education improvement. Both these ideas were grouped together by the judges.

3. Salsabeel

Presented by Khurram Sarwar, Salsabeel will provide a structural road map for creating self-awareness and strengths.

4. Pakistan Research Database

Every year when students reach their final year the struggle to find an FYP idea is very real. Libraries are full of thesis books but who has time to go through them? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if the work of past students was automated somewhere? Pakistan Research Database aims to do just that. The main idea behind this is to create such a database that can archive the thesis and research papers of graduate students.

5. Android Study App

We have all been at there when everyone is sharing documents and lecture slides just before the exams. Most of the time information gets all jumbled up. It would be so much easier if there was a dedicated platform. This app would solely be for study purposes, i.e. sharing pdf, slides, audio, and video lectures. This would also make communication between teachers and students easy.

6. Careerfellow

Most students are undecided about what path to choose and are always looking for someone to guide them. Careerfellow would guide people about what career to choose and also serve as a social network for education.

7. Ilmistan

Ilmistan aims to be an online learning platform and give teachers from rural areas tech training. Not only this, they would also be taught how to teach curriculum designed specifically for Pakistan.

8. Keep Schools Safe

When natural disasters occur schools are the first to be shut down. Keep Schools Safe is an interesting initiative that aims to keep schools open in case of any natural disaster. They also hope to train schools in life-saving techniques.

9. Robotics For Kids

Robotics is a very interesting field, one that should be encouraged in young children. As the name indicates, this idea aims to promote knowledge of robotics among children and also build labs in schools.

10. Ilm Ka Gulshan

Ilm Ka Gulshan aims to educate imams in such a way that they can teach and promote education within madrasas.

11. Resource Management in Education

Transparency in the education sector is one thing that is called into question again and again but there hasn’t been a proper solution to this so far. Resource Management in Education wants to develop a framework and model for transparency in education.

12. E-Taleem

This idea was pitched in a rather interesting way: Tinder for group study. Students, particularly those who prefer to study in groups, are always looking for study partners. E-Taleem would be a mobile app to connect students who want to study together.

13. Taleem Yafta

Taleem Yafta would be a platform where students can raise their problems and national or international donors can see if they want to help someone.

14. Book City/BBE

These ideas were again grouped because of their similar nature. Bookcity promotes buying and selling of used books whereas BBE takes books from donors and gives them to people who need it. They somehow hope to advertise it using fast food chains.

15. Educare/Jugnu – The Enlighten Learners

Educare hopes to provide online education for primary school children, teach them freelancing and paid tutoring to generate revenue. Jugnu – The Enlighten Learners aims to supports kids from low-income backgrounds to transform their ideas into reality. These two groups will also be working together.

16. Mindful Schools/Peaceful Minds

The idea behind Mindful Schools is to develop an environment that will decrease the stress level and enhance the education retention among students. They were grouped with Peaceful Minds whose motto is peace, content, and curriculum.

17. The First Step/Transgender Schooling

Pakistan’s transgender community has been demanding rights for a long time now but their voices are always silenced. But education is everyone’s right and particularly young children should not be robbed of it. Both, The First Step and Transgender Schooling aim to set up schools so that transgenders can get an education too.

Another shortlisted idea was Power The Student.