ISLAMABAD: Omar Farooqui, founder of Dubai-based edtech company Coded Minds, has become the first-ever educationist from Saudi Arabia to invest in the private education system in Pakistan, an official from his platform said, as federal and provincial officials hailed the move.
Saudi national Farooqui’s investment in STEM education is expected to reach millions of students in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and Azad Kashmir. During the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the Kingdom earlier this month, the educationist had expressed his interest in enhancing his investment and footprint in the Pakistani education sector.
In this undated photo, Saudi national Omar Farooqui, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of Coded Minds is seen standing with a poster of his education company. (Photo courtesy: Coded Minds)
Initiatives like Farooqui’s have been welcomed by the Pakistani government.
“We welcome Saudi investment in Pakistan’s education sector,” Pakistan’s education minister Shafqat Mahmood told Arab News.
Amna Khaishgi, CEO of Coded Minds South Asia, said the company had launched a STEM education project in Pakistan, with 5,000 Pakistani children already enrolled in online STEM education, and 1,500 teachers trained to meet STEM education requirements. The teacher training had to be halted due to COVID-19 restrictions and is slated to restart soon, she said.
“We are going to restart the program in KP and start it in AJK in August. We will train total 100,000 teachers both in KP and AJK to enhance their capability and capacity to meet the requirements of STEM education,” Khaishgi said.
“Along with training existing staff, we are going to hire around 600,000 people for this project in KPK and AJK to fill the capacity issue which will also start by the end of this year,” she said.
“Coded Minds will bear all the expenses of this new staff.”
She said the organization was also working to bring STEM education to Pakistan’s religious schools, especially in girls’ madrassas, or seminaries, by the end of the year.
STEM education has been known to increase critical thinking in students, and consists of experiential learning where the application of knowledge and skills are integrated through projects that focus on learning outcomes.
Khaishgi added that her organization’s education project with the KP government was “underway” and that an agreement had been signed with the Azad Kashmir government to cater to a million students.
Afrasiyab Khan, a spokesperson for KP’s elementary and secondary education ministry said that providing STEM education was “a very good step and need of the modern time.”
“It is getting popular as they [Coded Minds] have recently given a proposal to our ministry to expand the program which is under consideration,” he said.
