Accord signed for blended e-learning

Islamabad : Federal education and professional training minister Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday said his ministry was making efforts to come up with initiatives to bridge the digital divide gap through enhanced connectivity and adopt technology to improve quality of education.

"The new single national curriculum incorporates the use of modern technology for dissemination of quality education," he told a ceremony held here for the signing of a contract between the Federal Directorate of Education and PTCL to execute a pilot project for blended e-learning.

Besides the minister, PTCL president Hatem Bamatraf also saw the contract signing ceremony. Initially, the project is piloted for 17 schools, 80 class rooms and 3500 students. The main objective of the project is to assess the research based outcomes through use of different technologies on learning level of students of different grades.

The Mera Sabaq EdTech partner is providing the contents, while PTCL is providing various technology tools, including LDE screens, tablets and clickers, and integrating everything by establishing technology labs in the primary learning management system. The minister said international agencies, including World Bank and UNICEF, were taking interest in the project to assess, which technology was more useful to accelerate learning for a specific grade. He said the results of the research-based assessment would be shared with other countries.

The PTCL president said it was the company's national responsibility to support the government to further the cause of modern education and the company was doing everything possible for the purpose.