ISLAMABAD: Educationists have appreciated a citizen reporting mobile app and online platform Taleem Do launched by Alif Ailaan. Shama Javed, a retired degree college vice principal, said it was a very good initiative to promote education in the country and such initiative should be taken by the government as well.

A former chemistry department head of a university Javed Iqbal said there were some areas in the city where children had still no access to schools but the mobile application could be sued to address the education related issues in a better way.

According to the latest Pakistan Education Statistics report, there are 22.8 million children still out of school in Pakistan. Moreover, the national average score in subjects such as mathematics and science is below 50pc as per the National Assessment Test 2016 report.

Every child deserves to be in school and have quality education.

“Do the government schools provide that chance to every Pakistani child? The voice of the people of Pakistan can change this,” said Alif Ailaan’s campaign director Mosharraf Zaidi.

Explaining the features of the application, Alif Ailaan’s head of digital media Imran Ghazali said: “Through this application, people can report issues, read education-related stories and submit their pledges to support education reforms in Pakistan. The application works both on Android and iOs and gives the user the option to choose Urdu or English as the language.”

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2018