Staff Reporter
Top three innovators of the National Education Challenge were announced in a ceremony held on Sunday through a video link by the Ignite – MoITT.
Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, Secretary IT & Telecom graced the event as chief guest on behalf of Federal Minister for IT & Telecom Amin Ul Haq. The challenge was launched on 18th of this month by the Ignite – Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom (MoITT) through NIC Karachi to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 outbreak on education and literacy.
The top solution—Taleemabad—clinched Rs. 1.5 million—the startup promises to increase engagement through different assessments that can be implemented on a daily-basis which will help individuals to overcome daily life challenges.
The first runner-up—Halla Gulla—was awarded Rs. 1 million for their solution to address the importance of early childhood education and its impact on generating fast learning results besides building a strong foundation.
The second runner-up—Nativ Learning—received 0.5 million for expanding the rate of literacy by making education material available in native languages which are seamless to understand. The prize money has been awarded to these ingenious ideas as SEED Funding so that the young founders can further develop their products/solutions.
The National Education Challenge received 150 applications from across Pakistan.
Some 15 online training and mentoring sessions were conducted during the application phase to motivate innovators, educators, and technologists to participate in the challenge. Renowned tech educationists and industrialists Judged 150 ideas to select top 25 ideas which were further mentored by industry leaders to prepare them for pitching in the semi-final which was held on 26-27 June 2020. 10 ideas made to the grand finale to compete for the top 3 position.
