Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS), in collaboration with Jazz and GuarantCo, held a showcase event to share the success of their Mobile-based Adult Female Literacy Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and the lessons learnt from the programme, which can be utilized for similar projects in the future.<\/p>\n
The \u2018SMS-based Adult Female Literacy Programme\u2019 under the combined efforts of I-SAPS, Jazz and GuarantCo, has so far enabled over 4,000 adult females to read the newspaper, write in Urdu, perform everyday calculations and gain necessary life skills.<\/p>\n
This is being done with the help of four specifically-designed textbooks and freely-given mobile phones in eight districts of KP, namely, Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Buner, Malakand, Haripur, Mansehra and Kohat, where more than three out of every five females are unable to read and write.<\/p>\n
The chief guests for the showcase event included Ms. Anusha Rahman Ahmad Khan, Minister of State for Information Technology & Telecom, Engr. Qamar ul Islam Raja, Chairperson, Standing Committee on Education \u2013 Punjab, Ms. Judith Herbertson, Deputy Country Head \u2013 Department for International Development, Dr. Shahzad Khan Bangash, Secretary of Elementary & Secondary Education \u2013 KP, and Aamir Ibrahim, CEO \u2013 Mobilink & Warid Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn developing countries, Mobile Learning has become an effective medium to improve access to education and facilitate the alternative learning processes. Besides improving access, it has also proved effective in evading structural limitations, such as cost and infrastructure, as showcased by the success of the \u2018SMS-based Adult Female Literacy Programme\u2019 in KP,\u201d<\/em> said Ms. Anusha Rahman Khan. \u201cThe government supports the use of Information and Communication Technology to empower women across Pakistan.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur Mobile Literacy project in KP looked to overcome the prevalent social and cultural barriers to female education. The project\u2019s success was achieved by respecting the existing cultural and social norms, developing a sense of ownership amongst the local communities in providing basic literacy to their female family members, and introducing innovation,\u201d<\/em> said Dr. Salman Humayun, Executive Director \u2013 I-SAPS. \u201cWe believe that a customised curriculum along with the use of Information and Communication Technologies is the future of sustained learning, especially in areas with low literacy rates.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOur group-wide \u2018Make Your Mark\u2019 (MYM) initiative feeds directly into Mobilink\u2019s corporate responsibility strategy by helping young people in Pakistan through technology, expertise and knowledge. This Mobile Literacy programme is one of the initiatives under the MYM platform, and allows us to utilize leadership position to reach out to those females who are cut off entirely from the conventional educational system,\u201d<\/em> said Aamir Ibrahim. \u201cWe look forward to continuing our work with I-SAPS and GuarantCo in a bid to empower women across the country, so they too reap the benefits of the ongoing digitalization across the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since community ownership was deemed a cornerstone to make this Mobile-based initiative sustainable, active members of the communities were engaged, sensitised and grouped in the form of 154 Village Education Support Committees for their practical involvement in the planning and execution of the initiative. The members of these committees include representatives from all sections of the community, especially the respected elders and influential individuals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a result, I-SAPS and Jazz not only had an all-out community support in identification of local female teachers and learners in each of the district, but also managed to establish around 150 easily-accessible Adult Literacy Centres (ALCs), where adult females of ages between 15 and 35 years were enrolled and imparted basic literacy skills.<\/p>\n As the learners gained some level of literacy during their basic literacy coursework, each of them has been provided with a mobile phone in order to practice and further develop their newly acquired skills.<\/p>\n In early 2013, the \u2018SMS Based Literacy\u2019 program won the GSMA\u2019s Global Mobile Award in the \u2018Connected Life Awards\u2019 category, and was acknowledged as the \u2018Best Mobile Education or Learning Product or Service\u2019.<\/p>\n The program was highlighted by the competition\u2019s jury as an \u201cExcellent and needed mobile initiative with an explicit educational ideology that opens up new learning opportunities for a disadvantaged, rural group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS), in collaboration with Jazz and GuarantCo, held a showcase event to share the success of their Mobile-based Adult Female Literacy Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,181],"tags":[922,921,550],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4136,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions\/4136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digitaldips.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}