Build a computer center for youth in Pakistan

My story starts on august 9, 2010 when I was engaged in a training session by Shell Tameer Pakistan. And at the end of the training session 5 groups were formed and each group came up with bright ideas about this project. I was included in the Education group.

 When we talk about Education in Pakistan, several queries come into mind: Poor Literacy Rate, Difference of Education standards for different people or a clear Partition between English Medium and Urdu Medium institutes, Continuously varying Education policies of the govt., Restriction of Women education in a large area of rural Pakistan, Ghost Schools and many other issues echo in our minds about quality of education. But if we think in a lateral angle the most unfortunate condition of Pakistan’s education or Education policy is "No Research Oriented" mode of education. We study for job not for Knowledge or research.

 Keeping all these points in mind I have established a  project named PROJECTS, LEARNING, LEADING...

Mission Statement

Enhancing Mental and Technological resources to attain excellence in Education and prepare Global Leaders.

The objective is to offer an opportunity to acquire superior education which is perhaps the most important factor in creating a successful future for generations that will have to cope with a rapidly changing world. This continuing pursuit of excellence in educational practice can be enhanced by the introduction of computers and distance learning to supplement and improve learning methods.

The primary purpose of “Computer For Change” project is to establish technological resource centers to enhance the students’ academic excellence and their study skills. These centers provide a wide spectrum of resources ranging from computer labs. These resource centers strive to improve the quality of basic education by providing a better learning environment for primary, secondary and post-secondary students.

Our researches and identifies housing localities and schools where less fortunate communities of Karachi reside. A brief survey is conducted to assess the need of a Computer Lab in terms of the percentage of students who will benefit from it. A premise is acquired in close vicinity; it is renovated and transformed into a modern, comfortable and practical premise.

 Each Computer Lab is fully carpeted, air-conditioned and has several computer stations equipped with. The Computer Lab is run by qualified teachers of Computer Science. The computer labs service a large number of students’ every day and is open 7 days a week, from 10 am - 10pm.

Please explain how you have used the funds. Who all benefitted from your efforts (please specify the number of people)?

Computer for Change Projects were equipped with Pentium-3 Systems, but because of certain issues regarding system compatibilities with latest computer programing we have decided to change these systems. As technology develops, much more is being demanded of your computer

 These projects were fully funded by the generosity and philanthropy of Mr. Abker Ali Sadruddin, a successful business man and a Civil Engineer who currently resides in Houston, Texas, USA. He was funding 150000 Pakistani Rupees for each “computer for change” project, but due to some financial crisis he stopped funding to these projects. That’s why; I was waiting for a potential funding opportunity to upgrade my project. So when I have received this amount, we were in upgradation process of this project. With this amount, we have purchased 1 Dual Core Systems with LCD.

 System Specs:

 Expenditures

Amount (Rs)

 2.0 Dual Core, 1GB Ram, Super Combo, 80GB HD (Used Branded system)

 6200.0

Mouse

200.0

Keyboard

200.0

Acer LCD 15 inch (Used)

4000.0

Students are the greatest resource of every country and the most effective agents of change, however, unless the Students are equipped with essential knowledge, skills and modern education techniques, these capabilities can never be a reality. To become effective agent and manager of change, Students must be educated. They must be equipped with the knowledge, skills and practical and research oriented education, not only to function and live well in society, but also to be creative, productive and useful citizens of the country. These capabilities are most effectively developed in students through utilization of modern education techniques. So we are focusing on this point. We are providing free computer education to all children to prepare them to face the challenges of modern change.

We have entertained more than 2000 students yet since we start these projects and more than 100 students will get benefit from changes/upgradation we have made, on a daily basis. 

Were you able to meet all your objectives? And how has this funding benefitted your project and the community members in general?

 Most educationists are emphasizing technical and vocational education. These educations are possible with the use of ICT (Information and communication technology), which is introduced in schools through computer education. Computer should be a part of education in our schools in Pakistan. I am talking about “New Pakistan”. It could be better to introduce computer education from play level. Education makes people responsive to change. If change is started from children, it is quite easier to change.

 As Internet and digital media become more pervasive in modern computing, the Pentium and Core processor are optimized for a new level of digital audio, video, photography and 3D performance. The latest computer stations  offers excellent performance with added headroom for advanced applications such as

 Window Vista and Window 7 etc. Java technology and XML, which will be increasingly enabled in Office 2007, 2010 & 2012.

Secure connections with support for latest encryption technology for data transfer and e-Commerce transactions.

 Representing a breakthrough to a new level of computing, the latest processor are completely redesigned version of the earlier Intel processor architecture or Pentium III while maintaining backward compatibility with existing applications and for future applications.

 The latest computer processors are optimized for large data sets transfer and handling. This means the students will see significantly improved performance over previous generation Pentium III processors in applications that handle and require large amounts of data. This will apply to all vertical applications and many horizontal applications, such as financial analysis applications, where handling large data sets is the norm. For a limited number of horizontal applications, such as Microsoft Word, performance is not enhanced and can even suffer, though differences are typically made up for by faster processor speeds enabled by the new processor architecture. However, it should be noted that the trend in office applications is for greater and greater usage of graphics.

 We were planning to move to our 2nd phase of these projects. In this phase we are going to introduce following job oriented courses.

MT (Medical Transcription)

Web Development

Advance MS Office

Computer Programing

Photoshop & Graphic Designing

Computer programing’s

 The 1st course we have planned to introduce was “Medical Transcription (MT)” course in collaboration with MT Link Karachi. But we were facing some issues regarding compatibility of MT Software’s and Hardware’s with our old systems.

Moreover, we were continuously receiving breakdown and hanging issues when using advanced applications and also it takes too long to start up, programs take a long time to load, and there are frequent cases of slowdown. So to resolve these issues and to enter into the next phase of our project, we must have to change or upgrade these systems first.

Mentioning below the benefits of these changes/upgradation.

 We will be able to start the 2^nd phase of this project; the 2nd phase of this project will benefit those community members who want to use their computer skill to earn, because all these courses would be job oriented courses.

Students can learn advance applications. Also, we will be able to introduce more courses to the students.

Students can handle latest windows like window 7 & window 8. 

Hanging and slowdown issues will be resolved.

System incompatibility issues will be covered.

We will be able to offer some advance courses as discussed above.

These changes eventually benefit every community member.