Dear Readers today I have selected a topic of great interest due to its importance in the current era. I have come across to an information which really attracted me and therefore I decided to share the information with viewers so that if they think it’s an excellent idea and productive step, it can be followed and replicated in other cities and countries as well in the best interest of children who do not have access to good and quality education.
I started searching for someone who could provide the information on the adopted concept. Finally, I succeeded and found a relevant person who was serving as a consultant, I talked on phone with him and requested for a suitable time for an interview. The consultant agreed and I got the opportunity to interview him and got the detailed information. We met on the agreed date and time and after formal discussion I requested him to brief on the adopted concept. He stared with the details as below:
He said that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have profoundly impacted all over the world specifically the poor and developing countries the most. A province of Pakistan named as Sindh Province (which is very poor and weak in terms of children’s access to education), he said that the Sindh province has 6.5 million children out of school and its children faced severe learning loss due to extensive school closures during the Pandemic. As most countries around the world turned to digital learning solutions for continuing education, the education department of Sindh too decided to strengthened an initiative called ‘Digital Learning for Every Child’ with the vision of providing access to quality education through digital technology to all children in Sindh province,
to further enable children to continue learning during emergencies and to provide alternative learning environments for children, when the project was initiated and announced the UNICEF approached the education department and proposed for partnership, to support in increasing the digital learning opportunities for children in Sindh. UNICEF proposed, the consultant added that UNICEF proposed deployment of a learning platform for children called the ‘Learning Passport’.
Explaining the Learning Passport he added that the Learning Passport is an online, and mobile educational platform providing access to continuous learning for students, through curriculum aligned educational content and courses available on the platform. It has the potential to become the national learning management system as it is highly adaptable and flexible, allowing the education department to localize it to the provincial context to suit the needs of all children. On my question about the basis the consultant informed that the the cornerstone of this joint programme is to bring the outcomes such as: 1. Improved access to children’s learning via online and/or blended formats, 2. Increased capacity of teachers to improve their instruction and pedagogy by incorporating technology- based learning in their teaching and 3. Development of digital literacy skills for children through the Learning Passport both at school and at home, thereby imparting 21st century skills to the most marginalized populations, with special focus on girls education.
I asked the consultant regarding the benefits of ‘Learning Passport’ he replied that the Learning Passport will bring multiple benefits to children and teachers in Sindh which include; a) Reducing the learning gap of children caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, b) Improve the digital literacy skills in the population. The Learning Passport will be used on devices such as tablets, smart phones, and laptops, which will result in children, particularly girls, and their families learning to access the internet and using digital skills to continue their learning. Further the consultant added that it will accelerate quality learning opportunities and therefore bridging the learning divide between children in Sindh and other parts of the world and will develop essential digital literacy skills for teachers of the province.
The consultant outlined the program by saying that in the partnership both will jointly deploy the Learning Passport in the province and in the first stage this will target 5000 children and provide them with equitable, meaningful, and quality education, along with opportunities for blended learning and digital literacy skills development. He also added that through the Learning Passport, selected online programmes will be uploaded for access by children to build upon content aligned with the provincial Curriculum for classes 7 and 9, as well as to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy skills, develop digital literacy skills, and integrate technology in teaching and learning.
I posed another question and asked the consultant that what is expected to be achieved? He replied that the Learning Passport will be implemented in two stages and at each stage two deliverables is expected to be achieved, at stage-1 the two deliverables will be; firstly, access to continuous quality education through digital learning for children in grades 7 and 9 in selected schools, at school and at home and the second one is to increase capacity for teachers to embed technology and digital skills in their instructional planning and pedagogy.
In stage 2, access to the learning passport will be scaled up to reach all children from grade 7-10. And the following deliverables are expected to be achieved, the first one is access to 21st century digital skills to the most marginalized communities in Sindh, and the second is the Implementation and scaling of an equitable, quality, and globally secure learning solution in Sindh, through a UNICEF delivered learning platform, with the potential to become a national online learning platform for all learners in Pakistan, while he also added as a supplementary that in stage 3, access will be further scaled to include more class levels, including Primary the classes. Lastly he further elaborated that the initiative will be co-led by UNICEF and the provincial education department both partners will work closely and will implement the program through school leaders, and teachers to instrument learning opportunities for children through the deployment of the Learning Passport and apart from this partners will collaboratively work with national and international Education Technology providers and technology partners to select, adapt, translate, and provide relevant and interesting learning programmes and materials for children.
I appreciated the efforts of the education department as well as its partner and shared my view point after the consultants’ briefing by saying that it is an extremely positive approach with justified tactics and is also an invaluable thinking regarding those children who have no or little access to quality education and advanced technology, I believe that it is an excellent and productive initiative which will definitely result in fruitful outcomes.
I thanked the consultant for his time and valuable information and we enjoyed tea and refreshment together.
