Pakistan being one of country relating to the education sector, faced more problems once this pandemic began.
In the first stage education institutes of all level were shut down and the education system was transferred to online medium. As a result around 46 million student were forced to stay at home. In country like Pakistan where investment in education sector was already scarce, Covid-19 caused further shrinkage. Covid-19 magnified the inequality in Pakistan’s education system and a rise in school dropout rate was expected, especially girls. This was mainly because of worsening economic condition and high unemployment rate.
The online education system being new to everyone, was difficult to introduce at first. As internet service in Pakistan is also not satisfactory and most of the households don’t even have such facilities like internet and mobile/laptops available, so connecting to online classes was a big issue. Load shedding issue in multiple areas also added to the problems in online classes. This increased the gap between students and teachers further.
Certain strategies were designed by government to address this education sector issue, like “Tele school” was launched. Tele school consisted of educational programs being broadcasted at Pakistan Television from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. everyday. The content being taught was for grade 1-12. This Tele school became a single educational source for millions of Pakistani students. ‘Taleem Ghar,’ an education programe for public school students enrolled in grades1-8, was initiated at the provincial level by the government of Punjab. It is accessible through a website, cable television, and a mobile phone app. In order to make large-scale remote learning possible, provinces need to build and encourage localized, free and open digital resources for education. Where there is restricted access to the Internet and online resources, it’s essential to produce, print and distribute learning materials.
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