PESHAWAR: More than 5,000 students have been enrolled to learn different languages in the recently-launched Global Virtual School programme, reflecting a rapid expansion in digital and multilingual education.
Till end of October, 5,060 students have enrolled themselves from different parts of the country for learning different languages. According to official documents, 684 students got admission in the languages programme only in the month of October.
Global Virtual School of the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation has been offering the courses of five languages including English, German, Chinese, Korean and Japanese since its inception. The school is set to add two more languages -- Arabic and French -- to its programme on Nov 5.
“On any given day, 1,720 students actively participate in classes or complete coursework of different languages,” the managing director of Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation, Qaiser Alam Khan, told Dawn.
He said that 2,355 students, the highest number, were enrolled in English language courses.
He said that the number of English language students was 46.5pc of the total enrolled students. He said that English led in total daily learners with 709 active students of 2,355.
Mr Alam said that German language recorded the second highest enrolment with 1,572 students, which was 31pc of the total enrolled students in the programme. He added the daily participation rate in course of German language stood at 42.4pc, with 666 active participants.
He said that Chinese, Korean and Japanese accounted for the remaining active classes with enrolment of 570, 200 and 144 students, respectively. He said that 127 new students already enrolled themselves for the upcoming Arabic classes and 92 for French language.
Demographically, the programme serves an average student age of 30.2 years, with the highest concentration of learners falling between the age group of 20 and 25, according to official documents.
The documents say that male participants are 3,993, which is 78.9pc of the total students while female participants make up 1,066, which is 21.1pc. Most of the languages learners belong to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whose enrolment stands at 4,918 while 63 belong to Punjab, 20 to Sindh, 12 to Islamabad Capital Territory and eight to Gilgit-Baltistan while 33 other students have not mentioned the name of their provinces in the registration process.
Each single student has also been enrolled from Germany, India and Afghanistan.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar leads all districts with 1,106 students, followed by Swabi, Mardan, Khyber, and Charsadda with 323, 300, 282 and 277 students, respectively.
With over 62pc of the enrolled students already placed into active classes, the organisers of the programme continue to scale instruction and expand language acquisition opportunities across the region.
The deputy director of Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation, Bilal Ahmad, told Dawn that the languages programme was spanning over four months.
He said that the first batch of the programme was started from September. He added each single instructor was engaged for each language for live classes with offline support of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tutors.
The official said that each instructor taught for three days in a week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, starting at 4pm. He said that after each four months, the foundation enrolled fresh intake for the prescribed languages.
He said that the foundation properly advertised the programme with link of its portal through which the students got admission free of cost.
Sohail Ahmad, a resident of Peshawar, who is learning German language, told Dawn that he qualified the intermediate examination and wanted to go to Germany for higher education.
“It was a good opportunity for me to learn the German language by taking admission in the languages programme of Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation,” he said.
Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2026
