{"id":66663,"date":"2026-06-08T10:59:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T10:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/?p=66663"},"modified":"2026-06-08T10:59:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T10:59:32","slug":"pakistans-digital-classroom-divide-why-technology-alone-cannot-fix-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/?p=66663","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan’s Digital Classroom Divide: Why Technology Alone Cannot Fix Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Ms. Samina Mustafa, Member of the Board of Experts at Pakistan Research Center for a Community with Shared Future (PRCCSF), Islamabad, Pakistan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

“A laptop in every classroom may symbolize progress, but progress cannot be measured by screens alone. True educational transformation occurs when technology is accompanied by trained teachers, reliable infrastructure, inclusive policies, and equal opportunities for all learners.”<\/p>\n

Pakistan has seen an increase in the use of educational technology. We are now seeing the widespread use of AI, smart classrooms, digital learning platforms and online assessments in the center of education reform debates. However, despite these technological aspirations, Pakistan continue to face one of the biggest educational crisis in the world. According to the latest Girls Education Statistics and Trends Report, approximately about 26.2 million children in Pakistan are out of school, which is among the highest in the world. But when educational issues become the talking point of the day, one question rarely comes to mind in such euphoric mood \u2013 can technology help solve the educational crisis in Pakistan?<\/p>\n

The answer isn’t as simple as it sounds like some educational technology advocates believe. Technology undoubtedly provides more opportunities for enhancing the access, engagement and learning aspects of Pakistan’s education system, but technology itself cannot address all its structural issues that continue to undermine Pakistan’s education system.<\/p>\n

“Technology is not a substitute for quality teaching; it is a tool that amplifies it.”<\/p>\n

It is not only a learning challenge; it is an inequitable challenge. As per UNICEF estimates, 35 per cent of children between the age group of 5-16 are out of school in Pakistan. The situation is even alarming at a provincial level. The out-of-school children population in Punjab account for 9.7 million, in Sindh 7.4 million, in K-PK 4.5 million and in Baluchistan 3.5 million, where nearly 69 percent of school-age children remain out of school.<\/p>\n

In this regard, technology is often seen as a solution. Today, there are 125 million internet users in Pakistan and its connectivity is growing. However, access is still very inequitable. There is a huge digital divide between rural and urban students with 85% percentage of students using the internet in urban areas and 45% in rural areas based solely on geography.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these inequalities. School closures were anticipated to impact millions of students and lead to remote learning. However, many families did not have computers, iPads or Internet access. In low-income households, a single smartphone was often shared among multiple children. As a result, access to education increasingly depended not on academic ability but on access to technology and connectivity.<\/p>\n

However, digital technologies are not widely used in schools where they are available, because of the lack of infrastructure. The latest education statistics show that only 19 percent of schools possess digital devices, despite improvements in other infrastructure indicators such as permanent buildings and drinking water facilities. This means that over 80% of schools still not meeting their minimum requirements for key digital support in order to enable effective technology enhanced learning.<\/p>\n

Another significant challenge is the teacher’s preparedness. Research consistently indicates that teacher quality remains among the strongest predictors of student achievement. However, investments for technology often prioritize more over professional development. Teachers’ training is the most important to successfully use the smart board in teaching; if teachers are not ready to use digital tools in their teaching, then the smart board cannot be used well. Technology can be used to aid teaching; it cannot be used in lieu of pedagogical know-how.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence illustrates both the opportunities and limitations of educational technology. AI systems can personalize learning, offer feedback in real time, and support adaptive learning. These possibilities have sparked an interest in the educational sector in Pakistan to explore the potential for incorporating AI into their curricula and educational practices. However, AI demands constant internet connectivity, digital literacy and institutional readiness. Without these building blocks, AI risks benefiting only a small proportion of already advantaged learners.<\/p>\n

Examples from Pakistan demonstrate both success and limitation. Educational platforms such as Taleemabad and TeleSchool delivered educational content timely during the pandemic and reached out to the learners who may not have been able to get access otherwise. However, these programmes seemed to be of greatest benefit to those students who already had digital devices and connectivity. Learners benefitted from technology to overcome barriers and others were not sufficiently able to do so to offset structural inequalities.<\/p>\n

The lesson is clear. Educational technology can improve learning, increase access, and support innovation, but it cannot solve educational problems deep-rooted in poverty, inequality, and poor infrastructure. Pakistan’s challenge is not merely to digitize education but to democratize access to digital opportunities.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Pakistan needs to focus on investments which helps to reduce root causes of the digital divide in the future. These cover, for example, the provision of affordable broadband in rural and remote areas as a roll-out, and the support of digital skills development for teachers, as well as the guarantee of access to electricity in schools. The foremost thing is to not use technology for the sake of technology\u2014unless there is infrastructure and the skills to use it with efficiency and efficacy by students and educators.<\/p>\n

Equally important is shifting the focus from technology adoption to learning outcomes. The success of educational technology should not be measured by the number of devices distributed or smart classrooms established, but by whether students are reading better, staying in school longer, and developing critical digital skills. A truly effective digital education strategy is one that touches every learner, nevertheless of location or socioeconomic background, and translates technological access into meaningful educational achievement.<\/p>\n

Technology is an important part of Pakistan’s educational future. However, when 26.2 million children remain out of school and only 19 percent of schools have digital devices, the country’s greatest educational challenge is not technological innovation but educational inclusion. Until all learner can take part fully in the digital age, technology alone cannot fix Pakistan’s education system.<\/p>\n

“Pakistan’s education challenge is no longer whether technology exists, but whether every child can access it.”<\/p>\n

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“A laptop in every classroom may symbolize progress, but progress cannot be measured by screens alone. True educational transformation occurs when technology is accompanied by trained teachers, reliable infrastructure, inclusive policies, and equal opportunities for all learners.” Pakistan has seen an increase in the use of educational technology. We are now seeing the widespread use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":66664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,33,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-news","category-national-news","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailybigdigit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}