Microsoft has signed an Educational Transformation Agreement (ETA) with two major departments of the Government of Sindh — the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) and the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF).
The agreement is based on the Microsoft Educational Transformation Framework (ETF) under which Microsoft is committed to digitally transforming the educational sector to make it more successful and organized. The alliance is aimed at strengthening Sindh’s education sector by unleashing the potential of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) at all levels. Under this agreement, Microsoft will collaborate with key stakeholders to conduct several workshops, training sessions, webinars, and other joint activities.
The first step of the collaboration is working with the leadership of Sindh’s education sector to discuss and develop tailor-made digital transformation strategies, including several change management workshops with the leadership to help smooth out the digitization process in the sector.
Microsoft’s specialists are also committed to training the provincial government in designing, planning, and implementing cloud solutions through its cloud certification programs, and producing MIE Master trainers who will impart technology learning on behalf of Microsoft.
During the signing of the agreement, the Country Education Lead at Microsoft Corporation, Jibran Jamshad, stated that “the agreement will prove to be a roadmap for both parties in bridging the gap between education and employability through information Communication technology”.
He added that since Microsoft realizes that Pakistan’s education sector demands a great deal of change in terms of digitalization, it is already connecting with various educational institutions.
“We are closely working with a number of private and public sector institutions in developing customized educational products and services. This partnership with [the] Sindh Government is another step towards this goal to transform [the] education sector in Sindh,” Jamshad said.
The Secretary of Sindh’s School Education and Literacy Department, Ghulam Akbar Laghari, remarked, “We are proud to be partnered with Microsoft in the digitalizing Education system in Sindh. Under this partnership, we have developed SELD learning hub App and digital classrooms to cater for the educational needs of students in current emergencies. We are formally organizing these digital learning platforms to avoid any further gap in children learning across the province”.
He continued, “Also, we foresee that this partnership has a long way to go in ensuring a rapid pace of innovation in the classroom and inspiring students for great achievements”.
Another significant aspect of this ETA is to help Sindh’s education sector benefit from Microsoft’s latest technologies, including Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure Microsoft teams among others. By developing these skills, students, faculties, and educators will be able to learn, collaborate, create content, and share resources using the power of various Microsoft tools. This will enable the education sector to keep flowing and performing even in emergencies like pandemics.
This partnership is paving the way to reduce the gap between education and employability through employment-focused skill development programs. The program involves special programs for people with vision and speech disabilities.
Taking this cooperation to the next level, Microsoft will also collaborate with the Government of Sindh to create a feasible and robust environment for digitalization to provide affordable and secure devices, free learning materials, providing professional development opportunities, ensuring internet connectivity in the areas of Sindh that lack the facility.
