Ministry of Federal Education in collaboration with Google For Education Launched Pakistan’s First Project Albus
Ministry of Federal Education in collaboration with Google For Education Launched Pakistan’s First Project Albus Islamabad, 17 November 2022 – Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, in collaboration with Google for Education, Tech Valley Pakistan, NUST, and CTL. officially launched Project Albus at Islamabad Model College for Girls. Project Albus is an initiative under Education Innovation Center of Excellence (EICE) which is a pilot transformation of selected middle school classrooms to act as a laboratory for how the full suite of Google tools and technology-including Chromebooks, can enhance teaching and learning outcomes. Following the successful launch of Project Albus in different countries around the globe, this pilot is expected to benefit from dynamic and customized teachers’ training. As teachers and students will experience a wide range of Google’s education technology (EdTech) tools on Chromebooks, their feedback is expected to be robust evidence of the program’s effectiveness for public sector schools across Pakistan. The Principal of the Islamabad Model School and College F-6/2 welcomed all stakeholders of the program and congratulated them at the launch ceremony: “Hopefully, this pilot project will help both teachers and students to overcome all the challenges they have faced earlier, and I hope that this would help them a lot to utlize innovative gadgets properly, and prepare them all, in a better manner, for the upcoming digital era of proliferating technology.” Tech Valley, the project manager in Pakistan, deepened its commitment to the digital transformation of Pakistan’s education system by ensuring provision of Chromebooks to teachers and students at IMCG. Their teaching and learning activities on Chromebooks will be enhanced with the Chrome Education Upgrade, plus Google Workspace for Education tools such as Google Classroom and Google Meet. The representative of Tech Valley, Mr. Umar Farooq said: “We are trying that public sector school has the same accessibility as a kid can have in private school. Our teachers and students can do wonders with the right infrastructure, connectivity, and tools and teach students to use these devices safely with Google’s Be Internet Awesome program. We have also incorporated Google CS First program which has seen a great success in public schools of Pakistan earlier, to enhance the computer science skills of kids.” Tech Valley, also a professional development partner in this project will provide training for teachers at IMCG on the utilization of Google’s suite of tools for enhancing student learning outcomes. Along with that, teachers and students will be introduced to different subject-oriented educational applications and Google programs like CS First and Be Internet Awesome which can enhance the learning experience and equip learners with the necessary skills. The academic partner, NUST, will actively participate in the research aspect of the project. Its research team will evaluate teachers’ and students’ experiences with Chromebooks and Google’s tools, with the broader aim of establishing high standards of research methodologies for future pilots in Pakistan. Mr. Tim Paolini, Google for Education, Country Lead for Pakistan also joined the event virtually and mentioned, “I would like to highly appreciate the collaboration of Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Google for Education, Panl, National University of Science & Technology, and Ctl. Tech Valley and team made me realize the potential and impact a right partnership brings. I am beyond excited, to have reached this point not for results only but for close observations of the transformational journey together.” Chris Malone, Panl, also joined virtually and added, ”In a McKinsey study, Pakistan faced a major loss in its education sector during covid, South Asia was the major content that faced learning loss for 12 months because in these regions there is a lack of technology & solutions to continue education outside the school. Parties involved in this project are extremely innovative and along with teachers can come up with more innovatiove approcahes in teaching & learning practices that can create a wider impact on the educational ecosystem of Pakistan” This is the one of first initiative to develop best educational practices for Pakistan. All stakeholdersare looking forward to the progress and report after the completion of this project and move towards disrupting the educational ecosystem of Pakistan.
