In pursuit of its ‘let’s go digital’ mission, Pakistan’s cellular and digital services frontrunner, Zong, has partnered with The Star School in Okara’s Wasawewala locality to set up a digital lab there. Zong is facilitating the school with a computer lab for digital and curriculum learning. Currently, the school has a computer curriculum and teachers but lacks computers to practically learn and practice. The digital lab set up by Zong will plug this gap and allow the young students and their teachers to access digital education and match their pace with the world in terms of modern education.
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“The digital lab in Wasawewala School is aimed at reducing the digital divide that continues to be massive especially among the underserved segments of Pakistani society. The initiative is in line with the country’s vision of Digital Pakistan of which Zong is a key enabler. This is one of the many steps we have taken and plan to take in the future to digitally empower the Pakistani masses and open the doors of opportunities for them.” shared Zong’s official spokesperson.
Gul-e-Mariam, Chairperson of “The Star School “ Wasawewala campus ( registered elementary school for girls ) emphasized that in rural areas the digital divide is adding to lack of awareness and education. Commenting on the partnership Gul-e-Mariam said “Poverty, socio cultural barriers and powerful gender norms in the patriarchal rural system adds to the problems of female literacy. To alleviate poverty and increase female literacy and hence economic empowerment we need to educate our women in rural areas.
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Digitalizing Wasawewala girls’ school has opened avenues of awareness and doors of opportunity to females of Wasawewala as well as the surrounding areas. We aim to conduct awareness sessions on health, education and connect class rooms from urban schools to our rural school campus.” She further added, “We express our gratitude to the Zong team for their support in spreading the light of knowledge and trying to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural schools.”
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Zong’s has lately accelerated its efforts to promote digital education in Pakistan. Recently, the company joined hands with Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) to launch an online course called ‘How to E-lance’. The efforts are aimed to expand the digital learning outreach and support even more young people, especially women, who face mobility and safety challenges to get digitally connected and establish online careers.
