Mobilink in collaboration with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and Bunyad on Thursday announced the expansion of SMS-based literacy project.

While addressing a press conference, Rashid Khan, President and CEO, Mobilink said that the 5-month pilot project conducted with 250 adolescent girls in Punjab, has shown a marked improvement in their reading and writing skills.

"After its successful venture, Mobilink in collaboration with its partners announce the expansion of the programme by including another 1,000 girls to understand the impact of replacing the project on a larger scale," Rashid Khan added.

President Mobilink further said that cell phone holds the key to social development by its very nature and, therefore, the more marginalised segment of the society, i e women would be made sure to be the integral part of this revolution.

He said that with a view to reshape the lives through connectivity, the SMS-based literacy programme, a joint venture between Mobilink and Unesco with a local NGO, Bunyad as the implementing partner was launched last year.

In the pilot project, the 250 learners received informative text messages daily in Urdu and were expected to respond, Rashid said, adding that in the second part, the participants were evaluated on a basis to assess gains in knowledge and learning.

The programme was conducted with the help of 10 teachers enlisted by Bunyad.

It was found that at the beginning of the programme, 57 percent of the girls were graded 'C' and only 28 percent of the girls managed to score'A'.

However, near the end of the project the situation reversed with percentage of girls receiving 'C' dropped to only 11 percent, whereas more than 60 percent of the girls were awarded 'A', he added.

He further said that the programme teachers also report a stark improvement in the confidence of the young girls owing to a mobile phone made a difference to their sense of security.

Warren Mellor, Country Director Unesco said that Pakistan is the signatory of Dakar Framework of Action for EFA, held in Dakar, Senegal in April, 2000 and Pakistan has committed with Bunyad Foundation and Mobilink.

Mellor further said that out of 160 million population of Pakistan, 60 million people are illiterate, of which, 70 percent is female living in the rural areas.

"Literacy is the basic right of every human being for which a mass scale literacy drive is the need of the hour and using modern cellular technology can help achieve this goal rapidly," he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010

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