The availability of super fast internet as well as modern tools and technology has changed the way people use to receive education in the west. Today, class rooms in developed countries are equipped with latest gadgets that have made education more fun for students. This can be judged from a sales report of 2013, which showed that nearly half of the classrooms in North America are equipped with interactive flat panel displays or interactive whiteboards. The sales chart also showed that manufactures of interactive displays have huge opportunity to penetrate in the Asian market, where institutions still have not adapted this technology. One of these countries is Pakistan, where majority of the students are still receiving education in the traditional style.
In fact, most of them may not even know what exactly an interactive display is. Still one can give benefit of doubt to Pakistan when it comes to using high-tech gadgets and tools in classrooms because it is a developing country. That heavily depends on foreign aid, IMF's loan and where 5.5 million children already does not go to school. This revelation was made by none other than UNESCO itself, which has revealed in its 2014 report that Pakistan is among the 10 countries that has highest rate of out of school children. It is one of the facts over which one cannot close their eyes because education plays a very vital role when it comes to social and economic development of a country.
However, to resolve this problem first we need to determine what are the major problems that are preventing our youth from gaining education? One major reason behind it is that the Government of Pakistan have failed to keep the charges of educational institutions in affordable range. Secondly, majority of the population in the country lives in rural areas where number of teachers, schools and colleges are quite low as compared to a city. On top of it, the condition of schools and colleges in rural areas is also very poor, as most of them even lack basic necessities like class rooms, wash rooms and clean water for drinking.
In order to improve all these things the Government of Pakistan have to spend lot of funds and at this point in time it is not is a position to do so. Therefore, the need of the hour is that government should work something on the lines of a ninthd (9th D) like initiative. That has not only leveraged technology to provide distance education to the people of Pakistan, but also used online lectures and course materials to bring down the cost of its training programs. It is because of this very reason, ninthd's certifications will cost a trainee between 12,000 Rs. to 25, 000 Rs. that is simply unbelievable.
Most important of all, ninthd has launched these training programs by forming partnership with leading foreign institutes like UKCET and iCarnegie Global Learning that is powered by Carnegie Mellon University of USA. This means that with the international certifications of ninthd, people of Pakistan will be able to gain international level of knowledge and experience at unbeatable prices.
Since this idea is very much practical and less expensive as compared to other ideas. So, government should either encourage more people from private sector to start such initiatives or get in action itself by launching a similar platform that should focus more on regular degree programs.
By Arslan-Zafar
