Pakistani EdTech and FinTech Startups Win Prizes in International Competitions

Two Pakistani technology startups have recently won recognition in international competitions.  Sabaq, an EdTech startup, has been shortlisted for Siemens Foundation’s global award. Another Pakistani startup Tez Financial Services in FinTech space has been selected as one of the winners of $100,000 Prize at 2019’s Inclusive Fintech 50.  Growing availability of smartphones, tablets and mobile broadband is enabling Pakistani technology entrepreneurs to offer technology-based solutions in multiple fields including education and financial services. These young ambitious entrepreneurs are beginning to attract venture investments from overseas. Tez Financial Services has received $1.1 million seed funding led by Omidyar Network.

Sabaq:

Karachi-based Pakistani education technology (EdTech) startup SABAQ has been shortlisted for Siemens Foundation’s global award. The award recognizes and endorses low-cost technologies providing vital services and solutions for daily needs in developing countries. Earlier this year, Sabaq was selected among the Top 6 Global EdTech startups at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai.

Sabaq Tablet
Sabaq is among 11finalists selected from a 800 submissions from 86 countries.  It will be compete with other finalists for the top 3 spots in Cairo, Egypt next month. The award recognizes low-cost technologies providing vital services and solutions for daily needs in developing regions. Projects submitted are judged on their technical functionality, local adaptability, social impact, team structure, and financial and business sustainability.

SABAQ has partnered with the National Rural Support Program and identified communities where it has set up SABAQ Centers, non-formal learning spaces for out of school students who are taught using the meraSABAQ Tab. This is SABAQ’s custom-made android tablet that features the meraSABAQ app for primary level, each containing digital learning resources for Urdu, Science and Math, developed in-house in accordance with the national curriculum.

Sabaq Foundation is a non-profit organization that offers a tablet app and a website. The meraSabaq is a custom-made tablet designed to be used both by  experienced and new teachers across formal and non-formal learning environments.  Sabaq's website offers online video tutorials with free video lectures for Pakistani students. The website provides tutorials for four main science subjects -- Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology for secondary school students. The tutorials follow the exact syllabus of respective boards of education for Cambridge, Federal, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Balochistan.

Tez Financial:

Tez Financial Services is a woman-led financial technology startup in Karachi, Pakistan.  It has Visa Everywhere Initiative Women’s Global Award after Worldwide Search. It is the first fully digital financial institution in the country providing financial services to the unbanked/underbanked population via a smartphone app.

Tez FinTech App
Last year, Tez Financial raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by Omidyar Network, the impact investment firm established by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. Other investors on this round include Accion Venture Lab, the seed-stage investment initiative of global nonprofit Accion; and Planet N. Funds will help the company build its credit portfolio, enhance its mobile technology platform, and secure the company’s NBMFC (Non-Bank Microfinance Company) license.

The Visa Everywhere FinTech competition measures how competing companies leverage their companies’ unique ability to solve or transform consumer and/or commercial payment experiences locally, regionally or globally.

The founders of Tez were previously involved in the creation of Tameer Bank, Easypaisa, and CheckIn Solutions.

Pakistan Telecom Indicators

Technology Entrepreneurs:

Growing availability of smartphones, tablets and mobile broadband is enabling Pakistani technology entrepreneurs to offer technology-based solutions in multiple fields including education and financial services. As of May 2019, there are over 70 million broadband subscriptions in Pakistan and more than a million new subscribers are are being added every month, according to data from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority  (PTA). These young ambitious entrepreneurs are beginning to attract venture investments from overseas. Tez Financial Services has received $1.1 million seed funding led by Omidyar Network headed by E-Bay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Summary:

Two Pakistani technology startups have recently won recognition in international competitions.  Sabaq, an EdTech startup, has been shortlisted for Siemens Foundation’s global award. Another Pakistani startup Tez Financial Services in FinTech space has been selected as one of the winners of 2019’s Inclusive Fintech 50. Growing availability of smartphones, tablets and mobile broadband is enabling Pakistani technology entrepreneurs to offer technology-based solutions in multiple fields including education and financial services. These young ambitious entrepreneurs are beginning to attract venture investments from overseas. Tez Financial Services has received $1.1 million seed funding led by Omidyar Network.

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Comments

Riaz Haq said…
The share of cash payments worldwide is falling rapidly, from 89% in 2013 to 77% today


High internet use and state support help countries ditch cash
Even within the rich world, the most digitised societies use cash least often

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/08/01/high-internet-use-and-state-support-help-countries-ditch-cash

On july 27th, outside Brooklyn’s hipper-than-thou Smorgasburg street-food market, a dozen hungry visitors stand idle amid the barbecue fumes. Rather than queuing for food, they are waiting at a cash machine. Yet inside the market, vendors are trying to wean their customers off cash. Gourmets who use Apple Pay, a mobile-payment service, receive hefty discounts on their purchases. “Apple pays us the difference,” one trader explains.

Most transactions around the world are still conducted in cash. However, its share is falling rapidly, from 89% in 2013 to 77% today. Despite the attention paid to mobile banking in emerging markets, it is rich countries, with high financial inclusion and small informal economies, that have led the trend. Within the rich world, more-digitised societies tend to make fewer cash payments. In Nordic countries like Norway and Denmark, where 97% of people use the internet, around four out of five transactions were already cashless by 2016, according to a recent review chaired by Huw van Steenis of the Bank of England. In contrast, internet penetration in Italy is just 61%, and 85% of transactions there were still handled in cash in 2016.
Riaz Haq said…
SABAQ, LUMS Sign MoU To Improve Pakistan’s Education Ecosystem

https://academiamag.com/sabaq-lums-sign-mou-to-improve-pakistans-education-ecosystem/

Award-winning EdTech enterprise SABAQ, and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate for research and outreach purposes in order to contribute towards building a robust education ecosystem in Pakistan. The MoU was signed by Hassan Bin Rizwan, CEO & Co-founder of SABAQ, and Dr Mariam Chughtai, Associate Dean and Assistant Professor at the LUMS School of Education.

This agreement between SABAQ and LUMS School of Education (SOE) will provide a unique opportunity for the involved parties to research and study the strengths, challenges and best practices of SABAQ’s partner schools, in an effort to bring research-backed and evidence-based improvements in the education sector in Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Hassan commented, “This partnership will prove as a major stepping stone in our collective efforts to create an environment of high-quality education. We expect the research to yield insightful information to further help us create a better learning atmosphere for students, improve their learning gains and create a more robust education scenario.”

Founded in 2015, SABAQ is an education technology initiative that has reached 100,000 children in low-cost and low resource environments till date. Its flagship application, Muse, has helped increase access to education technology in over 1,000 low-cost public and private schools in Pakistan.
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistani team shortlisted for finals of #MIT Challenge. Teach the World Foundation uses #digital games on Android tablets to facilitate self-learning for primary school children. #edtech #DigitalPakistan https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistani-team-shortlisted-for-finals-of-mit-challenge/

A non-profit organization ‘Teach the World Foundation’ (TTWF) got selected for the finals of top American university Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Solve Challenge. Their project, titled Enhancing Literacy and Numeracy (ELAN), focuses on improving education outcomes in developing countries.

The Teach the World Foundation team, led by US-based Pakistanis Shafiq Khan, (CEO & Co-Founder) and Imran Sayeed (Co-Founder), is working in multiple countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Malawi. TTWF works to establish effective and scalable models of literacy and learning by leveraging innovate digital technologies.

MIT Solve is a platform where tech entrepreneurs from all around the world present their ideas to solve pressing global issues. MIT Solve has partnered with the TigerIT Foundation in Bangladesh to create a challenge that “aims to find and support start-ups that will provide quality education, healthcare and employment opportunities” in Bangladesh.

Out of 628 applicants, Teach the World Foundation is one of 15 finalists chosen to present their solutions in Dhaka on the 10th – 11th of December 2019. They stand a chance to win a share of $1.5 million in funding to expand their program in Bangladesh and beyond.

In Bangladesh, TTWF is currently working in the Rohingya Refugee Camps and Dhaka urban slums. They are trying to address the issue of 2.6 million primary grade out of school children in the country alongside problems of quality as most primary-grade students exhibit poor learning outcomes.

The solution provided by TTWF to fight illiteracy is simple and inexpensive and can be implemented anywhere in the world. They use digital games on Android tablets to facilitate self-learning for primary school children. The program is currently operating in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Malawi with positive results.

Teach the World Foundation has done notable work in Pakistan to provide education for all. The vision of the foundation is to help eliminate the educational crisis in the country. TTWF expects that Pakistan’s literacy rate will increase significantly with the use of technology.
Riaz Haq said…
Teleschool goes on air today to compensate for academic loss

https://www.dawn.com/news/1548995

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday inaugurated a national broadcast education channel to mitigate the loss faced by the students due to the closure of educational institutions till May 31 in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

Teleschool — the dedicated TV channel — will be aired through a beam provided by Pakistan Television (PTV) from Tuesday (today) across the country from 8am to 6pm for online education from class one to 12.

Speaking at its launching ceremony, the prime minister said that teleschool would help students learn during the closure of schools. This initiative would also help the government reach the remote areas, which didn’t have access to education facilities and infrastructure, Mr Khan said.

He said as Pakistan had a large number of out-of-school children (OOSC), this initiative could promote primary education and focus on the OOSC.


He said no one could predict when Covid-19 would be eliminated, as it could take two, three or six months. He said this project was highly productive in the given circumstances.

The PM was of the opinion that this project should continue even after the pandemic was over and reopening of schools. He said it would help promote education in remote areas while the concept could also be used for telemedicine.

He said that adult literacy could also be promoted through this project. He appreciated all those officials who played their role to launch this project.

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood at the launch told the premier that education ministry was also mulling to develop an app to benefit over 20 million out-of-school children and promote adult literacy.

About country’s literacy rate, the minister said: “We have just 60 per cent literacy rate”. He said the education ministry was trying to link education with technology so that adults who wanted to learn had access to education through mobile phones.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan was also present at the launch of teleschool.

Officials of the education ministry told Dawn that the dedicated TV channel, teleschool, would be available on satellite, terrestrial and cable networks so that it would be accessible to most parts of the country, including hard-to-reach remote areas, ensuring equity in learning. An officer of the education ministry said that the ministry initially inked an agreement with PTV for three months, but if needed it could be extended as the PM also expressed his desire for the project’s continuation.

Joint Secretary (Education) Syed Umair Javed, who had supervised the content development process, told Dawn that online content was developed in accordance with country’s curriculum and it was made attractive for students.

“The credit of making this project possible in less than a month goes to unsung heroes: content developers, teachers and staff of Federal Directorate of Education, editors, techs and producers of Allama Iqbal Open University and PTV,” he said.
Riaz Haq said…
PTA, Pakistani mobile operators send more than 1 billion COVID-19 awareness SMS

https://www.telecompaper.com/news/pta-pakistani-mobile-operators-send-more-than-1-billion-covid-19-awareness-sms--1337937


To raise awareness regarding TeleSchool - Pakistan’s first education channel for students (a joint project of Pakistan Television and the Ministry of Education), 93.15 million SMS messages have been sent. To support operations of educational institutions, and call centers, around 120 IPs have been whitelisted since 19 March 2020. PTA has also allocated 14 different short codes and 6 UAN (Toll Free) numbers to Government entities working on controlling the pandemic.

PTA is also supporting donations by mobile users under ‘Prime Minister's COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund-2020'. To increase public awareness about this initiative, nearly 142.08 million SMS messages have been sent to subscribers urging them to donate to this cause. Mobile subscribers can donate PKR 20 per SMS by sending a text message to a special code.

---------------------------

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and mobile operators sent coronavirus awareness SMS to subscribers across Pakistan. According to the PTA, nearly 1.028 billion coronavirus awareness messages have been sent since 19 March in Urdu, English and regional languages to mobile users across Pakistan.
Awareness SMSs in Urdu and English have also been sent to persons who may have come into contact with coronavirus patients while travelling. More than 0.58 million cautionary messages have so far been sent to travelers and suspected persons since 19 March. Coronavirus awareness ring back tones have been activated on 79.4 percent (131.7 million) of total subscribers’ mobile devices, the PTA also said.
Riaz Haq said…
Telenor Accelerator launches #EdTech Innovation program in #Pakistan. It provides curriculum and skill-based #education for school, college and university students, as well as additional courses incl personal development modules, #digital skills & #STEM https://www.telecompaper.com/news/telenor-velocity-launches-edtech-innovation-programme-in-pakistan--1339472#.XsgMksKQ1Mc.twitter

Telenor Velocity, the digital startup accelerator by Telenor Pakistan, has introduced its EdTech Innovation programme, to forge alliances with EdTech startups/scaleups. This initiative is launched in response to the closure of educational institutions and offices due to the coronavirus outbreak, Telenor said.
The programme provides curriculum and skill-based education for school, college and university students, as well as additional courses including personal development modules, digital skills, and STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) with a special focus on Robotics.

The Telenor Velocity EdTech Cohort has stepped forward to help students shift to online access and added a number of partners for this purpose including K-5 SABAQ Muse, a learning service based on videos, games and ebooks in multiple languages for early grades. The Edaksa service supports STEAM education and helps Pakistani high school students prepare and pass their standardized government exams; while the EDTechWorx content creation and collaborative delivery platform connects learner, educators and the overall industry. The Skills First online academy aims to allow users to develop their skills; while LearnObots aims to develop makers and creators of tomorrow, with a practical learning approach in the domain of Educational Robotics.
Riaz Haq said…
How #EdTech is reshaping the #education landscape in #Pakistan. Most of startups (9/10) have witnessed a 1.5X to 3X increase in users since the #COVID19 #lockdown. $2.65 million has been raised by 6 edtech startups in a total of 8 deals. https://www.menabytes.com/edtech-pakistan/ via @MENAbytes

In a study by Invest2Innovate earlier this year, out of 13 edtech startups that participated, 54 [percent expressed that they were expecting to raise funding despite the pandemic, while 53 percent reported having a cash runway of 6-12 months. Additionally, 77 percent of the edtech startups that participated had also pivoted their business model in some way due to Covid-19 and 85 percent already had an alternative offering for the market according to a survey that was conducted back in March. The majority of the edtech startups surveyed (9/10) for this newsletter reported a 20 percent – 100 percent growth in users during the past 3 months. Similarly, most of these startups (9/10) witnessed a 1.5X to 3X increase in the amount of usage since the lockdown was implemented. See the figure above for details. A combination of these factors makes edtech an exciting and potentially lucrative sector for investors.

Well-funded edtech startups in Asia & comparison with Pakistan

Deal flow data collected previously by i2i shows that a total of $2.65 million has been raised by 6 edtech startups in a total of 8 deals. The highest amount of investment on this list is attributed to the Knowledge Platform which raised around $2 million in 2019. The findings also showed that with the exception of Dot&Line and Knowledge Platform, all investments were raised from either local or international angel investors. Many edtech startups have either won grants, awards, or have partnered with development funds, which are not accounted for in this data. Since the sample size is quite small (while it is still representative of the universe of edtech startups in Pakistan), it’s important to see if the findings hold up with larger sample size.

Analysis of deal flow data of some well-funded edtech startups in Asia shows that China comes out on top in terms of amounts of investments. Startups such as Zhangmen, Dada, KnowBox, VIPKid, iLearning Education Group, and Gaosi Education raised investment that ranged from $140 million to $350 million.

The only two non-Chinese edtech startups that came close to the size of investments raised by Chinese startups in 2019/2020 were Indian BYJU’s ($181 million) and Indonesian Ruangguru ($150 million) – with Byju’s raising twice from different investors in 2019 alone. BYJU’s makes an interesting case study for many startups in South Asia that are trying to raise investment and scale their companies.

While several factors have contributed to the success of the company, one factor that really stands out is their lessons that were created using various board-approved syllabi from different states in India. Roughly 90 percent of the content is evidently common across curricula, which helps it map the same content into varied curricula, making the solution highly scalable.

Similarly, other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. are also producing a significant number of edtech startups. Many of these have managed to raise substantial amounts in investment over the past few years, particularly in Indonesia.

The Middle East – while not too prolific when it comes to quantity of edtech startups – accounted for two companies that raised a significant amount last year. Noon Academy is one of these startups (based in Saudi Arabia), which raised an investment of $8.6 million in 2019, while another EdTech startup based in Dubai called Almentor raised $4.5 million the same year. See the figure below for details.
Riaz Haq said…
Blackboard Learn vs Canvas

https://www.trustradius.com/compare-products/blackboard-learn-vs-canvas#:~:text=Blackboard%20is%20the%20legacy%20academic,management%20functions%20efficiently%20and%20effectively.

Features
Blackboard Learn and Canvas have unique approaches to features they offer that differentiate them.

Blackboard Learn has expanded the range of features it offers to meet broader needs. For instance, it offers students and educators multiple methods of communication, from an email portal to in-platform chat and discussion forums. These tools enable more student collaboration in-platform. This collaboration is particularly valuable in an all-online context.

Canvas excels at delivering the fundamentals of a modern learning management system. Its document and assignment management features are very robust. Canvas also offers various content creation tools, including video creation. Reviewers also highlight Canvas’s gradebook capabilities, both in terms of grading in the system and giving students visibility into grades and feedback from educators. The user interface is also relatively easy to use and is more customizable.

Limitations
There are also limitations to Blackboard Learn and Canvas work keeping in mind.

Blackboard has been criticized for its user interface. It is not known for being easy to use, especially for users that aren’t tech savvy. This leads to noticeable learning curves for many users. The interface issues also extend to the mobile application as well. Additionally, online grading is relatively limited and difficult for educators to use. Some reviewers have also claimed that it is not cost-competitive with Canvas, but that information is not publicly available.

On the other hand, Canvas also has a noticeably steep learning curve. It also lacks the depth of collaboration abilities that Blackboard Learn offers. While content creation in general is a strength, assessment creation and administration is more difficult than other document creation and management.

Riaz Haq said…
Blackboard Learn vs Canvas

https://www.trustradius.com/compare-products/blackboard-learn-vs-canvas#:~:text=Blackboard%20is%20the%20legacy%20academic,management%20functions%20efficiently%20and%20effectively.

Features
Blackboard Learn and Canvas have unique approaches to features they offer that differentiate them.

Blackboard Learn has expanded the range of features it offers to meet broader needs. For instance, it offers students and educators multiple methods of communication, from an email portal to in-platform chat and discussion forums. These tools enable more student collaboration in-platform. This collaboration is particularly valuable in an all-online context.

Canvas excels at delivering the fundamentals of a modern learning management system. Its document and assignment management features are very robust. Canvas also offers various content creation tools, including video creation. Reviewers also highlight Canvas’s gradebook capabilities, both in terms of grading in the system and giving students visibility into grades and feedback from educators. The user interface is also relatively easy to use and is more customizable.

Limitations
There are also limitations to Blackboard Learn and Canvas work keeping in mind.

Blackboard has been criticized for its user interface. It is not known for being easy to use, especially for users that aren’t tech savvy. This leads to noticeable learning curves for many users. The interface issues also extend to the mobile application as well. Additionally, online grading is relatively limited and difficult for educators to use. Some reviewers have also claimed that it is not cost-competitive with Canvas, but that information is not publicly available.

On the other hand, Canvas also has a noticeably steep learning curve. It also lacks the depth of collaboration abilities that Blackboard Learn offers. While content creation in general is a strength, assessment creation and administration is more difficult than other document creation and management.
Riaz Haq said…
The startup boom in Pakistan

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2308970/the-startup-boom-in-pakistan

Record levels of funding are pouring into Pakistan-based startups, boosting hopes for a brighter economic outlook for the world’s fifth-most populous country.
Startups have received $85 million in venture capital (VC) funding so far this year, outpacing the $66 million raised in 2020, and venture firms continue to build their war chest.
“A surge in venture capital investment in 2021 augurs well for innovation in the country,” said HBL COO Sagheer Mufti while talking to The Express Tribune.
“In particular, the focus on fintech and partnerships with banks provide immense opportunity for driving consumer choice and ease, employment, financial inclusion and economic growth. HBL’s investment in Finja was in this spirit,” he added.
Fintech companies have received about a fourth of the total VC investment so far this year. They are finding plenty of overseas investors eager to tap the world’s third-largest unbanked population in what is being called a “fintech revolution”.
In Pakistan, 71% of adults do not have a bank account, one of the highest rates in the world.
Islamabad-based fintech SadaPay raised $7.2 million - reportedly the largest seed round ever in the country - for a personal debit card and e-wallet that still awaits regulatory approval.
Trading app KTrade - dubbed the “Robinhood of Pakistan” - raised $4.5 million after amassing 200,000 users since its launch in 2019.
US-based mega-firm Kleiner Perkins made its first investment in the country - a $17 million round for Tajir, a B2B marketplace based in Lahore that enables small business owners to buy from manufacturers and wholesalers.
Another B2B marketplace, Bazaar, raised $6.5 million in seed capital. Abhi raised $2.1 million for its early wage access platform and is headed to Y-Combinator (along with TAG).
Riaz Haq said…
State Bank of Pakistan issues NOCs to five applicants for establishing digital bank

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40220082

Central bank expects after commencement of operations, digital banks will promote financial inclusion by providing affordable/cost effective digital financial services to unserved and underserved segments

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday said that it has issued no-objection certificates (NOC) to five applicants for establishing digital banks in the country.

The following are the ones issued the NOC:

I) Easy Paisa DB (Telenor Pakistan B.V & Ali Pay Holding Ltd.),

II) Hugo Bank (Getz Bros & Co., Atlas Consolidated Pte. Ltd. and M & P Pakistan Pvt. Ltd.);

III) KT Bank (Kuda Technologies Ltd., Fatima Fertilizer Ltd. and City School Pvt. Ltd.);

IV) Mashreq Bank (Mashreq Bank UAE); and

V) Raqami (Kuwait Investment Authority through – PKIC and Enertech Holding Co.)

In January 2022, the SBP introduced a licensing and regulatory framework for digital banks.

“The Framework was the first step towards introducing full-fledged digital banks in Pakistan. The digital banks are expected to provide all the banking services through digital means without any need for their customers to visit the bank branches physically,” said the SBP.

Race to digital banking – final round

In response to SBP’s Licensing and Regulatory Framework for digital banks, the central bank received twenty (20) applications from a diverse range of interested players such as commercial banks, microfinance banks, electronic money institutions and Fintech firms by March 31, 2022.

“Further, a number of foreign players including venture capital firms already operating in the digital banking space also expressed their interest to venture into Pakistani market directly or in collaboration with local partners. The five (05) applicants were selected after a thorough and rigorous assessment process as per the requirements of the Framework.

Bank Alfalah launches QR payment solution with SnapRetail

“Applicants were assessed on various parameters that included fitness and propriety, experience and financial strength; business plan; implementation plan; funding and capital plan; IT and cybersecurity strategy and outsourcing arrangements, etc. Further, all the applicants were given the opportunity to present their business case to SBP.

“Going forward, each of these five applicants will incorporate a public limited company with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. Afterwards, they will approach SBP for In-Principle Approval for demonstrating operational readiness and for commencement of operations under the pilot phase. Subsequently, they will commercially launch their operations after obtaining SBP’s approval.”

The SBP said it expects that after commencement of their operations, these digital banks will promote financial inclusion by providing affordable/cost effective digital financial services including credit access to unserved and underserved segments of the society.
Riaz Haq said…
ChatGPT will transform edtech, educational content creation, say experts at KLF
Panel discussion stresses on need to incorporate AI in curriculums for win-win results

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40227107

Experts from the technology space in Pakistan agreed that the availability of ChatGPT has transformed edtech and educational content creation.

They also noted that it will prove to be a challenge for educators because students are now becoming prone to using the chatbot for their assignments and homework, making it difficult for teachers to assess the performance of the candidate.

Users say Microsoft’s Bing chatbot gets defensive and testy

Speaking on the second day of 14th Karachi Literature Festival, they stated that artificial intelligence (AI) was set to disrupt the education segment of the world.

The panel discussion, titled ‘Edtech-The New Normal’, stressed the need to reform the curriculum of educational institutions to incorporate new developments in technology so they can utilise it in everyday work. They admitted that technology should act as an enabler for a humans in daily lives.

Knowledge Platform Founder and CEO Mahboob Mahmood said that plagiarism checks are a technical problem with chatbots like ChatGPT.

“We cannot fight ChatGPT with 20th century tools. We will need 21st century technology for that,” he said. “The chatbot, however, promises personalisation of education.”

Pakistan’s edtech startup Out-Class raises $500,000

Speaking on the occasion, Katalyst Labs founder and CEO Jehan Ara stated that Stanford University has taken a lead in combating chatbots and developed Detect GPT to check if an article was generated through a chatbot. According to her, Detect GPT is 95% accurate.

Daraz Pakistan Managing Director Ehsan Saya said that while ChatGPT was personalisation of education, it is light years behind in what it can do. He was of the view that the chatbot will be updated from time to time to offer new services.

Startup ‘MyTutorPod’ used latest tools to ensure maximum productivity during pandemic

Online education in Pakistan

The speakers pointed out opportunities and challenges surrounding online education in Pakistan.

Mahmood highlighted that edtech took off in Pakistan at the outset of Covid-19 and later its popularity retreated.

“Lately, it is witnessing genuine growth because people have become sophisticated while using it,” he said. “We are one to two years away from inflection point of Edtech.”

Pakistan’s edtech startup Maqsad raises $2.1 million in pre-seed funding

Jehan stated that connectivity is a huge issue hindering the growth of Edtech in the country. “Even big cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad see usual disruption in signals and this problem is rampant in small cities.”

She stressed upon addressing connectivity problem on war footing. She also called for improving access to education for people with disabilities.

“The disabled population should also be part of diversity. Next year, KLF should have sign language interpreters in sessions so that hearing impaired people can participate,” she recommented.

She also said that lack of will of people to send their kids to educational institutions was also a problem.

“Some people don’t want to send their sons to schools and force them to earn while they don’t send their daughters because they wear a veil.”

Oxford University Press (OUP) Pakistan Management Director Arshad Saeed Husain stated that such students can utilise edtech and study from home at the time of their convenience.

Edkasa: the startup using TikTok to spark students’ love for learning

He also added that people usually question what is the future of OUP amid rapid rise in edtech, ebooks and online education.

“The answer is that we create content and books are one classification of content. We had ventured into digital education long time back. Digital is the future.”

He underlined that blended approach in education is needed where both print and digital content will be needed to study.
Riaz Haq said…
Internet Startup Maqsad Scores Pakistan’s Biggest Edtech Round

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-16/internet-startup-maqsad-scores-pakistan-s-biggest-edtech-round#xj4y7vzkg

European seed investor Speedinvest leads round by Karachi firm
Company bets on rising demand for after-school tutoring


Pakistan’s Maqsad raised the nation’s largest funding round by an education technology provider, showing that some startups in the nascent market are attracting investors despite a global venture financing slump.

The Karachi-based company raised $2.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Speedinvest GmbH, one of Europe’s largest seed investors, and existing backer Indus Valley Capital, according to co-founder Rooshan Aziz. Stellar Capital, Alter Global and angel investors also participated.

Riaz Haq said…
Internet Startup Maqsad Scores Pakistan’s Biggest Edtech Round

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/internet-startup-maqsad-scores-pakistan-070000407.html

European seed investor Speedinvest leads round by Karachi firm

Company bets on rising demand for after-school tutoring


Pakistan’s Maqsad raised the nation’s largest funding round by an education technology provider, showing that some startups in the nascent market are attracting investors despite a global venture financing slump.
The Karachi-based company raised $2.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Speedinvest GmbH, one of Europe’s largest seed investors, and existing backer Indus Valley Capital, according to co-founder Rooshan Aziz. Stellar Capital, Alter Global and angel investors also participated.

Pakistan’s venture funding was little changed at about $350 million last year, but startups including AdalFi and Truckrr have raised sizable rounds for the market this year. The nation has the world’s fifth-largest population with a high proportion of young people.

“The ecosystem is going through a bit of a shake, but the companies which you know are solving fundamental basic problems, they’ll survive,” Aziz said in an interview. Maqsad’s operations are relatively lean and scalable and its education content always remains relevant, Aziz said.

Education spending in Pakistan is estimated at $37 billion by 2032 with a quarter of this going to after-school academic support, the target market for Maqsad, according to the startup. The mobile-only service targets students on grades nine to twelve and offers cheaper rates than brick-and-mortar tutoring companies. Its services include a feature that allows students to take a photo of a question and receive an answer instantly.

The app has been downloaded more than a million times and it has answered 4 million queries in the past 6 months. The startup can impact millions of students and become one of the most successful businesses in Pakistan, said Philip Specht, a partner at Speedinvest, which has one edtech unicorn in its portfolio.

The startup was founded by high-school friends Taha Ahmed and Aziz, who went to the London School of Economics and worked in the city before returning to Karachi to start the venture. The startup will start monetization in the coming months and may partner with other public and private institutions, Aziz said.

“This is an interesting time for edtech because globally the hype has kind of settled down after Covid,” said Ahmed. “So only serious companies are being funded in this space.”
Riaz Haq said…
How Maqsad’s Mobile Education Can Help More Pakistani Students Learn

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidprosser/2023/03/16/how-maqsads-mobile-education-can-help-more-pakistani-students-learn/?sh=ffc4bfb54126

Maqsad aims to make education more accessible to 100 million Pakistani students through a learning platform delivered via a mobile app. The platform offers teaching and testing, and can respond to queries. It seeks to disrupt the country’s out-of-school education sector, which largely consists of expensive tuition services that most families can’t afford.

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Growing up in Pakistan, high-school friends Rooshan Aziz and Taha Ahmed, the founders of edtech start-up Maqsad, were very conscious of their good fortune. Aziz struggled with dyslexia but his parents were able to afford after-school academic support that enabled him to complete his education. Ahmed, meanwhile, benefited from a series of academic scholarships that gave him a headstart in life.

Fast forward to the Covid-19 pandemic, Aziz and Ahmed were both working in London, and watched with horror as Pakistan tried to move to online learning, but found itself unable to scale up a technology platform capable of supporting large numbers of students. The crisis acted as an impetus to launch Maqsad, which is today announcing a $2.8 million funding round as it reaches 1 million users only six months after its launch.

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“Maqsad offers an exceptional after-school learning experience for students at a fraction of the cost of existing alternatives,” Ahmed explains. “Our focus on student problems is at the core of our mission, and we’ve collected feedback from over 20,000 students and teachers across Pakistan to ensure learning outcomes are being achieved.”

Certainly, the company has grown remarkably quickly. Since its launch last year, the Maqsad app has been downloaded more than 1 million times and is consistently ranked as the number one education app in Pakistan on the Google Play Store. The app provides access to high-quality content developed by experienced teachers, but also uses artificial intelligence tools to offer personalised learning.

Aimed initially at students aged 15 to 19 – often preparing for board or university entrance exams – the platform aims to have real impact in a market where student-teacher ratios, at 44:1, are among the highest in the world. Maqsad – the name is the Urdu word for “purpose” – offers a freemium model, enabling students to access a range of features and services at little or no cost. Over time, it plans to offer more content aimed at younger students.

From an investment perspective, the business offers exposure to an education market that is worth $37 billion in Pakistan. While other technology-enabled providers are also targeting the market – including Abwaab and Nearpeer – Maqsad regards its primary competitors as the providers of physical tuition centres. These are unaffordable for many students, it points out, or simply inaccessible for those who do not live in urban locations where such centres are located.
Riaz Haq said…
PM launches ‘Teleschool Pakistan’ for free online education

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2407321/pm-launches-teleschool-pakistan-for-free-online-education

Teleschool Pakistan is a mobile application developed by the Ministry of Federal Education to provide free online education to students of all grades.

Addressing the ceremony, the prime minister observed that teachers’ training in the country was not up to the mark which was unfortunate and cited his experience in Punjab province.

He said that he had directed for steps to improve the quality of about 40 training centres in the province during his tenure as the chief minister.


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Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Waseem Ajmal presented an overview of the initiative.

He said digital contents would be created and made available on different medium. A total of six digital channels were being launched for different ages.

He said after the Covid pandemic, 6,000 quality videos were prepared.

Teachers would also be properly trained under the professional development initiative, he added.

Under the initiative, 150 chrome books were being distributed among the students while another 6,000 chrome books would be distributed soon, he added.

Riaz Haq said…
Education Technology in Pakistan | EdTech Hub

https://edtechhub.org/where-we-work/pakistan/

EdTech Hub develops and delivers evidence in EdTech. We work in partnership with researchers and stakeholders in-country to find specific, effective solutions to education challenges.

Since 2020, EdTech Hub has been assisting many players in Pakistan’s education sector. Because the education sector in Pakistan is very decentralised, EdTech Hub’s work requires close collaboration with the Government at the federal and provincial levels, as well as local partners, EdTech entrepreneurs and policy think tanks.

More specifically, EdTech Hub works with the Pakistani Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MoFEPT), the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), the FCDO, World Bank, and UNICEF to achieve large-scale impact.
Riaz Haq said…
HugoBank Appoints Atyab Tahir as CEO to Build a Digital Bank in Pakistan

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hugobank-appoints-atyab-tahir-ceo-020000099.html

Atyab Tahir brings over 2 decades of local and international experience in fintech and digital financial services to help build a digital bank in Pakistan

HugoBank expects to increase Pakistan's bank account penetration rate to over 80% and to open 34 million new accounts by 2027

SINGAPORE, March 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HugoBank, Pakistan's latest digital bank led by a Singapore Consortium, today announced the proposed appointment of Atyab Tahir as Chief Executive Officer, subject to the State Bank of Pakistan's fit and proper assessment. Following the company's incorporation, Atyab will set-up and lead HugoBank in Pakistan to offer digital banking services to people and small businesses across the country.

Atyab brings over 20 years of business experience and deep industry knowledge to drive HugoBank's mission in Pakistan. Prior to HugoBank, Atyab led Jazzcash and served as a country head for Mastercard. He has also held senior positions with Tameer Bank and HBL where he focused on innovation and growth. With his vast experience in banking and fintech in Pakistan, the Middle East and New York, Atyab brings the best of both industries complete with a rich understanding of the local market and its needs.

"I am thrilled to lead HugoBank at the beginning of its journey in Pakistan and am confident that our digital bank will catalyse financial inclusion and wellness for the people of Pakistan. I am excited to assemble a team to build a customer-centric bank focused on offering accessible, convenient, and secure digital financial services to underserved individuals and SMEs alike," shared Atyab Tahir, Chief Executive Officer of HugoBank.

HugoBank will promote financial inclusion and literacy in Pakistan, offering products and services at price points that are accessible to everyone. The consortium aims to help Pakistan to achieve an 85% bank account penetration within five years, up from the current 16.29%[1] and is expected to open 34 million new accounts by 2027.

Pakistan has one of the lowest credit adoption rates in the financial sector, with only 2.4% of its population having access to credit from formal financial sources and 53% of the country's 220 million population currently financially excluded. Recognising the challenges faced in Pakistan, HugoBank is committed to introduce its state-of-the-art financial platform that will provide customers with an easy and convenient way to safeguard their money. With HugoBank, financial inclusion and literacy will become more accessible, ultimately contributing to the economic growth and wellbeing of the country.

Led by Singapore's Atlas Consolidated, which owns and operates the fast-growing WealthcareⓇ and savings app Hugosave, HugoBank is a joint venture formed in partnership with The Getz Group and Muller & Phipps. It received its No-Objection Certificate by the State Bank of Pakistan in January this year.

David Fergusson, CEO of Atlas Consolidated said, "We are pleased to welcome Atyab Tahir as the new CEO of HugoBank. With his extensive experience and deep understanding of the market, we are confident that he will lead HugoBank in promoting financial inclusion and literacy in Pakistan and help improve the lives of millions across the country. We are excited to work with him to provide and share international best practices and platforms to drive a positive change in the financial landscape and client's Wealthcare®."
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan: Technology boosts education reform in remote areas

https://www.globalpartnership.org/results/stories-of-change/pakistan-technology-boosts-education-reform-remote-areas

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Education in Pakistan’s Balochistan and Sindh provinces has been hampered by natural disasters, poor infrastructure and remoteness, and further exacerbated by political, economic and security problems.
From WhatsApp groups to biometric fingerprint systems, innovative technology has helped with building and restoring schools and improving teacher retention in these remote regions.
Since 2014, GPE’s support has led to 53,000 previously out-of-school children enrolled in school in Balochistan, and the tracking of educational data in all 29 districts in Sindh.

Supported by a US$34 million GPE grant, the government of Balochistan set up digital profiles to record land transfers and follow school construction, supporting the completion of schools and allowing education officials to track progress.

Large-scale surveys gathered geospatial data, an innovative and cost-effective way to identify abandoned buildings that could be transformed into schools.

Balochistan also established criteria for the selection of school sites, ensuring no other school existed within a 1.5 km radius and that locations enabled at least 20 out-of-school children to attend. This resulted in schools being built in remote areas with the most need.


Since 2015, 700 schools with new or renovated buildings have been completed and more than 100 girls’ primary schools upgraded to secondary. With GPE support, education authorities began to track real-time data in 14,000 schools, including teacher attendance and enrollment.

This has helped with the allocation of funding to locations with the greatest need. Android apps also record the physical infrastructure of schools, providing timely information on the functionality of toilets, drinking water and electricity.

School monitoring using technology
Both provinces use tech solutions to support management and ensure accountability in the education system. In Balochistan, apps keep track of teacher attendance, recording when teachers are within a certain geo-radius of the school; they work offline in more remote areas, uploading information when there is network access.

Through a US$66 million GPE grant, the Sindh province used tech tools to ensure teachers were deployed to the areas where they were most needed. Fingerprint-based biometric and photograph systems supported by GPS coordinates are also able to track teaching hours.

Greater incentive and validation for teachers
In a significant boost to quality learning, GPE supported the recruitment and training of qualified teachers, with emphasis placed on hiring female teachers to increase girls’ enrollment. Since 2015, 1,200 teachers have been recruited in Balochistan after passing the national testing service exam.

Better teaching and consistently open schools have helped increase student enrollment, with over 56,000 more girls enrolling in public elementary, primary and middle schools in Sindh.

Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan’s Abhi Issues First #Sukuk #Bond for a #Fintech in Region. #Karachi-based startup raised 2 billion rupees ($6.8 million). Demand exceeded expectations with subscriptions reaching twice the anticipated amount. #startup #technology
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-12/pakistan-s-abhi-issues-first-sukuk-bond-for-a-fintech-in-region#xj4y7vzkg


Pakistan’s financial platform Abhi has raised the first-ever Sukuk bond for a fintech firm in the region, opening a new funding line for startups that have seen a slowdown in venture capital.

The Karachi-based startup raised 2 billion rupees ($6.8 million), an industry first for the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan region, said Omair Ansari, chief executive officer and co-founder. Demand exceeded expectations with subscriptions reaching twice the anticipated amount, he said in an interview.
Riaz Haq said…
TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHERS
Article by Andrew Sharp Photos courtesy of Sabrin Beg May 05, 2023

https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/april/effects-technology-education-pakistan/


Lerner College (University of Delware) professors explore how electronic devices impact classrooms in Pakistan


Developing countries like Pakistan are struggling to improve education, the researchers wrote, and their governments tend to use several strategies. One is to supply technology directly to students in an effort to make up for teachers’ shortcomings. The other is costly investment in teacher training, which may not be effective if governments don’t pour substantial resources into the design and support of the project.

This research has important implications for how to improve education in countries facing similar dilemmas.

“Every country, everywhere in the world, has a constrained budget, right?” Lucas said. “That’s why there are economists. And so this is just thinking about how to use those scarce education resources most effectively.”

That’s where the research comes in. The government of Punjab province in Pakistan developed digital teaching material featuring expert teachers, and wanted to know if it would be more effective to give preloaded tablets with the high quality material to each student, or to give one tablet to the teacher along with a display screen so the teacher could present the material. The digital lessons included explainer videos, review questions and more.

Through a connection of Beg’s in Pakistan, the UD pair was brought on board to conduct the study. They examined student performance among classrooms using a randomized controlled trial in which randomly selected schools used the two different kinds of digital lessons, while control schools operated as usual. The government of Punjab provided the technology.

One outcome that surprised Beg and Lucas was the magnitude of the effects. The study found a stark difference between the outcomes of the different approaches to delivering the digital material.

The eLearn classrooms — the ones focused on providing material to teachers — did improve student learning, with students outperforming the control group by a whopping 60%. They were also 5% more likely to pass the standardized test at the end of the academic year.

The students who each got tablets, but whose teachers could not display the content to the class, actually performed 95% worse than the control group.

“Basically, it’s like (these) students almost learned nothing … relative to the control students,” Lucas said.

When each student received a tablet, Beg said, there wasn’t a way for teachers to engage with the technology. “It made it actually maybe harder for the teachers to make it part of their regular classroom teaching, whereas the screens (eLearn Classrooms) did the opposite.”

In other words, “One of the more important takeaways was that teacher engagement seems to be an important ingredient in making technology successful in the classrooms,” Beg said. Also, “It’s not something that will solve all learning crises in developing countries, but that (technology) should be integrated into the classroom.” Appropriately, of course, to avoid the negative effects.

A lot of governments, she said, find technology very promising but don’t know exactly how to integrate it to make it useful.

There’s been a tendency, Lucas said, to bypass teachers using tech or after-school programs that basically create a parallel education system. “But … what this shows is no, these teachers are capable of delivering more learning to their students. And (in this case) the way that this happened was through technology.”

Riaz Haq said…
CONNECTING PAKISTAN
Covid-19 as a Catalyst for Digital Transformation

https://www.tabadlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-05-25-Tabadlab-Connecting-Pakistan-Covid-19-as-a-Catalyst-for-Digital-Transformation.pdf


Executive Summary
Covid-19 has altered the fundamentals of how societies and economies organised
and operated in an ever-connected world. The pandemic has disrupted and
altered the connectivity in three foundational ways. It changed human-to-human
interaction, it undermined the capacity of individuals and firms to engage in
economic activity, and it reduced the financial connectivity that drives economy.
At the heart of the response to this compromised connectivity were mobile and
internet services. The pandemic required two immediate policy actions. The first
was to tackle infection-enabling behaviour, and the second was to limit infectionenabling connectivity. Furthermore, the pandemic’s impact on livelihoods, on
learning, on healthcare and on transactions of all kinds needed to be mitigated. In
each case, it was the digital realm in which the immediate solutions to the impact
of Covid-19 were found.
Over 160 million Pakistanis experience digital through their mobile phones. The
pandemic has demonstrated how integral mobile phones were in restoring
human, transactional, and financial connectivity, and are now where key
interactions take place. Mobile operativity is enabled by the telecom sector, which
has a crucial role to play in ensuring connectivity and expanding our digital
economy. However, the telecom sector must start to think about connectivity in
terms of value creation. Human, financial and transactional connectivity has the
potential to generate new ideas, services, tools and opportunities for economic
growth if the correct mindset is applied.
The wider impact of the telecom sector’s response to Covid-19, however, is likely
yet to be seen. The pandemic response has laid bare the spectrum of issues that
prevent digital connectivity in Pakistan—a pathway to rapid and sustainable
economic growth and social development. Disparities in digital access cut across
income levels, gender and the rural-urban divide. The quality of digital services
remains inefficient due to low Internet bandwidth, barriers to innovation and a
need for better decision-making capacity at the policy level. Lastly, there is
potential for higher levels of digital adoption, as Pakistan has a relatively high
usage gap where 54% of people who are covered by broadband networks do not
subscribe to broadband services.
How can Pakistan catalyse a digital transformation? The country requires a
coherent policy framework for mobile, internet and the wider telecom sector. One
important aspect of coherence is the establishment of a broader ecosystem in
which telecom can thrive. A key driver of digitalisation is the extent to which
government adopts and adapts digital solutions, especially in its engagement with
citizens. Enhanced engagement, usability and responsiveness of government
through technology is thus crucial for a national digital transformation. The
normative place of digital in Pakistan needs to be affirmed through clear and
comprehensive policy and communication efforts. Technically, Pakistan needs to
prioritise optimising spectrum allocation in a manner that drives economic growth.

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