Creating an ‘Education City’ of our own
As a student in Qatar, Pakistan was never far from my mind. While studying at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), a partner university of Qatar Foundation (QF), I was always aware how fortunate I was to receive a world-class education. However, one question always stayed in the minds of me and my fellow GU-Q student Ahwaz Akhtar: How could we use our experiences in Qatar to benefit Pakistan?
Before coming to Qatar, I had worked to set up a school in a slum in Islamabad, where over 70 children studied free of cost. On our visits back home, we were constantly reminded how the education system seemed skewed to favor the privileged. It was not unusual to meet children as young as four who had faced classroom demolitions and natural disasters. Many of these children’s lives had already been turned upside down, upon arriving in the country as refugees from war-torn Afghanistan. All too often, these slum kids were left begging in the streets or doing odd jobs, like washing cars and homes, instead of getting an education.
Alongside fellow GU-Q student Ahwaz Akhtar, we began to ask some big questions: What if these children could receive a world-class education like ours? What if we could prevent them from falling behind? What could we do to put them at the cutting edge? Our resolve to offer solutions to each question helped bring Orenda to life.
WISE and getting started
The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is a global initiative of QF aimed at transforming education through innovation. Held every two years, it brings together innovators in education from across the world. The Learners’ Voice program of WISE provides young people with the knowledge and skills to make a difference. It aims to change the way people conceptualize education in local societies. It helped us turn our ideas into something tangible.
Under the guidance of enthusiastic team members and education experts such as Dr. Thomas Cassidy, a Fellow of Education Impact, we embarked on the initial stages of our idea during the Learners’ Voice program. The first iterations included using shipping containers as temporary schools. However, this idea was discarded, as local authorities began forced removals of all refugees in the areas we wanted to work in. We had to think quickly on our feet and adapt Orenda to the quickly changing circumstances.
Using insights from our rigorous field research, we realized that in areas where we worked, having three square meals a day was often a rarity. However, there was a proliferation of affordable internet service and smart devices like cell phones. Even in the poorest areas.
Could this be the answer to our education delivery challenge? After running “co-creation” sessions within the community, where we tested our ideas for using digital content and smart devices to reach students, it was time for us to embrace this digital revolution.
Digital revolution
The world is now moving towards a new era of education that is personalized, adaptive, and caters to the interests of the learner. Our team at Orenda was determined that the experience of underprivileged children in Pakistan should be no different.
We designed the Orenda curriculum for digital formats. Hosting the curriculum online means it can be downloaded for offline use or streamed live. This enables us to sidestep the need for physical brick-and-mortar schools in situations where they cannot be built.
This approach has the advantage of being flexible and inexpensive. We have also tried to develop an education model that is both highly engaging and addictive for children. Our award-winning curriculum is taught through cartoons, reinforced by play-based learning, and tested by assessments.
Our interventions are meticulously driven by data. Every test performance is visualized, allowing us to personalize the education for students, according to their strengths, weaknesses, and most importantly, their interests.
Taleemabad
Our experiences at Education City and GU-Q were influential in developing Orenda. We were given the desire to serve and create paths where seemingly none existed. It gave us the training to run organizations. Crucially, we learned how to break down our long-term vision into short-term goals.
Our cartoons are set in an imaginary city dubbed ‘Taleemabad’, which is Urdu for ‘Education City’. The amazing thing is that anyone can be a part of it; it is a revolution that excludes no one.
Growing ambitions
Thanks to a crowd-funding campaign in 2016 and a round of funding from Telenor, we are now able to reach more than 1,300 students across a huge stretch of territory throughout Pakistan. The initial results have been impressive. We have seen a slow-down in drop-out rates, raised attendance, and improved performance. But this is just the beginning.
As technology becomes more and more prevalent, we aim to bring the school to the children, as opposed to the children to the school. Children residing in places where conventional schooling cannot reach, risk becoming a ‘lost generation’. Through a new campaign of ours, we seek to help Orenda reach students who have no access to formal education and provide a reliable future for them.
At Orenda, we aim to empower those on the fringes. We have an undying belief in their ability in the face of adversity. Ultimately, it is knowledge that creates thinkers, believers, and helpers.
It is our hope that our idea — born in Qatar and achieving impact in Pakistan — will become something that the next generation can say: “This is ours”.
-Haroon Yasin, co-founder of Project Orenda
