Mobilink has joined hands with UNESCO in order to launch the third phase of the ‘Mobile Based Literacy’ program – a broad initiative continuing since year 2009.
The aim of this remarkable initiative is to improve literacy for female students, aged 15-25 years in rural and deprived areas, by utilizing mobile technology.
Mobile Based Literacy program is an evolution of the previous ‘SMS for Literacy’ programme, with the third phase of the project designed to us the mobile phone both for learning and communication between the teachers and students, as well as teachers and supervisors.
In the third phase of the program 2500 students will be given basic literacy skills through by communicating with teachers though SMS based interactive lessons. As a value addition the third phase will also enable 100 participating teachers to coordinate with supervisors and report on student progress via data enabled SIMs provided by Mobilink. The current phase also extends the outreach of the program, reaching out to Jahanzeb Taj, Vice President Marketing, Mobilink highlighted:
“ICT provides some of the most powerful methods to help us in our efforts to eradicate illiteracy in Pakistan. The Mobile Based Learning Program use the cell phones as a learning tool and has been designed to take advantage of Mobilink’s extensive penetration amongst the Pakistani population. The earlier phases provided great results, reaching out to 1500 female students and I look forward to this program having an even greater impact in the third phase.”
Dr. Kozue Kay Nagata, Director & Country Representative UNESCO added:
“3 years back UNESCO started piloting mobile literacy project, and through that small project we have expanded the use of mobile phones for more than communication, now its also an active tool of information, education and knowledge in Pakistan. We find this collaboration between public-private partnerships extremely important. Through this project UNESCO has made 1500 adult female not just literate but also made them connected to the world and empowered them to a degree where they feel empowered citizens, which we count as great achievement.”
