A Look at PTCL’s Contribution to The Education Sector!

Education sector is among the primary contributor for the development of any society. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, education never received adequate attention including sustainability funds from the decision makers and governing bodies alike.

Apart from the government, even the local education boards remained shy of making any concrete reforms in our obsolete education sector.

It was in the wake of COVID-19 that Pakistan collectively realized how weak its education system has become. As a result, education sector became the center of focus by all its stakeholders in the country.

Government and Information Communication Technology (ICT) service providers particularly has given practical boost to revive Pakistan’s education sector by digital means under the vision of ‘Digital Pakistan’.

PTCL was among the first telcos which quickly began to plan and facilitate the education sector throughout the country during the pandemic. Just recently the company has taken lead by partnering with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and providing them with state-of-the-art landline and wireless connectivity services.

Prior to this landmark partnership, PTCL had offered  free  Taleem Ghar video bundle, PTV’s Teleschool Live TV channel with play, pause and rewind option along with the option to catch up with last 7 days of transmission on PTCL Smart TV and Smart TV App.

Furthermore, unlimited internet packages on their Charji device was also given so that students could easily learn from their online classes and continue with their education. The same company has also brought the Digital Pakistan vision in their innovations that are subject to offer maximum utility to its consumers. Educational institutes from private and public sector are also giving emphasis towards online education delivery system and PTCL seems ready to facilitate such needs in the near future.

COVID-19 created a crisis situation all over the world, as no country was ready or equipped to tackle the situation with extensive lockdowns in place in such a short interval of time. It is in these trying times that a system is truly tested and Pakistan’s education system revealed many gaps in their delivery system in such a situation.

PTCL being the national telecommunication company took lead to offer innovative solutions that were focused on alleviating the education crisis in the country. The concept of digital education can be seen in the internship programs conducted during the pandemic by PTCL. All participants were trained and operated from the safety of their homes and were successfully building their skills with the help of PTCL’s digital solutions.

The Ministry of Education has categorically mentioned the devastation done by the pandemic to all stakeholders of the education sector. Millions of students were left stranded in their homes as schools remained closed for months. Even now the SOPs designed to reopen the schools restricts the full strength of the classrooms in comparison to before the pandemic. This means there is still a lot of room for improvement in the education sector.

In fact, this can become the right opportunity for Pakistan to develop a digital remote-based education delivery system that will certainly help mitigate the loss of education sector while promising a safe and effective education system in the country. A comprehensive collaboration between the government and the corporate sector like PTCL’s endeavors can further safeguard the education sector in Pakistan.