SELD Learning Application

The innovation aims to overcome multiple barriers that prevent girl’s access to education in the area. Firstly, the low quality of education in public schools is a significant factor that creates a barrier to girls’ education. The innovation dismantles this barrier by improving the quality of education through the integration of the SELD Learning App by MUSE in the selected public schools. The app contains a multitude of learning resources such as videos and quizzes and teacher resources such as lesson plans to help improve lesson delivery and student engagement. This will subsequently lead to better learning outcomes. Moreover, the SABAQ team is working on building teacher capacity and has conducted teacher orientation and onboarding sessions to acquaint them with the best teaching strategies. This will lead to better lesson delivery and improved quality of education. Moreover, girls’ access to technological devices is also viewed negatively due to the prevalent cultural norms. The innovation gives female teachers and students a platform to share their positive stories and help change the stereotypes. The teachers conduct regular sessions with parents to convince them of the positive uses of devices to girls for education and the benefit of investing in girl’s education. When the stakeholders in the community are convinced of the importance of girls’ education, the cultural norms that prevent girls from accessing education will be dismantled.

SABAQ wants to give underprivileged children access to high quality learning content through leveraging technology. The content is designed by experienced academic professionals who carefully create original content based on the learning outcomes of the National Curriculum. It comprehensively covers oral, verbal, and written Urdu and Math syllabus content for KG to G5, while remaining locally relevant and culturally sensitive for the Pakistani audience. The syllabus content for each Grade and Subject touches upon each given SLO within the National Curriculum. The tablet platform allow users to experience full graphics functionality on a portable, easy to use device that possess the same processing power as a laptop computer but at a lower cost. Tablets do not require a constant power source, and can run for hours without being plugged in, making them ideal for the more remote areas of Pakistan, often without constant electrical supply. Moreover, this application is available in an offline version in the tablets provided to these schools so it does not require any internet connection to view any content.

Our curriculum has been implemented in almost 1,000 formal schools and non-formal learning centres reaching over 252,233 children, 1818 schools, 540 learning centers and 1505 learning units. This has significantly improved literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking skills among the students. The project also actively promotes girl’s education by using technology and community engagement to change cultural norms and resistance to female education.