ow does one go from something as emotionally challenging and physically demanding as the Air Force to producing educational content for children? Turns out working to educate children is right up my alley — you get to fight centuries’ old myths that people still believe in.

SABAQ is my brainchild. I was inspired by Salman Khan’s book, The One World Schoolhouse. I am referring to Salman Amin Khan, who founded the Khan Academy. I soon realised that I agreed with Khan’s view—of scaling mastery learning. Why should anyone have to proceed to the next level on the fringe of a passing grade? Is such an education even impactful? Should one really proceed to the next grade knowing only fifty percent of the curriculum? By the time such students reach college, will they have retained even ten percent of it?

It is very rare in Pakistan to come across a teaching setup where a child can proceed at their own pace after having mastered a skill. In August 2015, when the idea first came to me, I found out that millions of children in Pakistan were out of school, with little access to education. How could we work towards education equity in a country where even children attending school were struggling to learn basic skills? According to data collected by Tabadlab, only 23 percent of students at late primary age (10 years) in Pakistan can read and understand an age-appropriate text.

So, SABAQ was born.

In Urdu, SABAQ means a lesson, tangible or otherwise. Inspired by the Sesame Street, I sought to produce story-based lessons for young children. I headed a team that put their heads together for the production of hundreds of story-based lessons that would teach our children without boring them. These lessons last a lifetime because of their engaging storyline. These lessons were not just stories; they included problem solving, language, alphabets and songs (for instance, Alif Say Yay series on YouTube) along with lesson plans, worksheets and quizzes. Relatable characters in stories were the best bit (most of us grew up studying with unrelatable, non-Pakistani characters) since children would fondly engage with them.

SABAQ’s lessons have reached millions of children. They have trained thousands of teachers. Partnered with education giants in the country like The Citizens Foundation, and organisations like the USAID, the Malala Fund, the DFID, the federal government and the governments of Sindh and the Punjab, we have managed to take fun lessons to everyone.

One of SABAQ’s biggest achievements has been pioneering the Blended Learning Classroom. We worked together with the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training to work on the Blended Learning Classroom model in 200 public schools in Islamabad.

In a world where artificial intelligence is making progress by leaps and bounds, 21st Century skills are more important than ever before. We did not stop at the K-5 level. SABAQ partnered with Legal Aid Society to develop a series on life skills (bullying, lying, caring for animals, etc) for educating juveniles in prisons. The Society for the Advancement of Education reached out to us for the development of a series on a tale that leads through the ancient cities of Pakistan such as Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and Gandhara.

SABAQ has also developed continuous professional development courses for teachers and a thriving teachers’ community accessible in real time.

While kindergarten to the fifth grade was never the ultimate target, it was one of SABAQ’s early milestones in order to fill the gaping deficiency in our education system. Being one of the first in the EdTech space, SABAQ has its own readers along with a repository of open-source readers making a digital library available for our young learners. SABAQ has received several awards, including the coveted GESS Education Award for 2020. It has had its content reviewed for its efficacy by Coffey International and the Punjab Education Foundation for improved learning outcomes.

Making use of the best technology has to offer, SABAQ has made its content available for use on apps like the Sindh Education and Literacy Department app, SABAQ’s own MUSE app, and PTV’s TeleSchool’s application.

The writer is the founder and CEO of SABAQ and Moonshot Animations. He is an alumnus of the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, US, and IBA, Karachi