Pakistan’s Technology Gap

 Global Technology

It is fairly safe to say that technology is taking over the world. Most of our daily lives are consumed by it, and our news sources are dominated by it.  Some of the latest headlines include;  “Top Secret Drone Makes First Flight”,  “Bionic Hand Allows Patient to ‘Feel'”, “The Car that Parks Itself”, and “Robotic Cops to Monitor Traffic in Space”.

The use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops as thin as a piece of paper have transformed our society to be able to have access to communication across international borders and we are entering into a new era in which technology drives nearly every step in our day and entire economies are determined by the excess or lack of it.

Status of Pakistan

Despite the exciting progress in gadgets and technological advances in the rest of the world, Pakistan is being drastically left in the dust.  The International Telecommunications Union (Geneva) has recently found that only 10% of Pakistanis use, or know how to use, computers and the internet.  To understand the disparity of this:  81% of American’s use the internet on a daily basis. 

While the rest of the world is creating robots and doing a vast majority of their business online, many Pakistanis are just now learning how to use a computer.  For the future success of Pakistan, to give many of their citizens a hope for their future, we must consider the undeniable correlation between computer literacy and a nation’s economy.   Access to the internet, and having a basic understanding of mobile devices and computers can increase a person’s income and professional opportunities by over 41%.  In order for Pakistan and it’s economy to keep up with rest of the world and provide vital technological advancements to their citizens, we must make computer education a priority.

We believe that offering technological training to all 375 of our students and their families will EMPOWER them be able to have more job opportunities for their future and reinvest back into their communities and country as a whole.  As we make our new computer lab a priority at Shining Light Academy, our goal is for our students, and eventually the entire nation of Pakistan to be able to compete in this global market and thrive.

Progress Update

We have had a generous donation of 30 laptops to kick off our Computer Lab project! Thank you to everyone who has jumped on board and given to the project already.  School starts in less than 30 days and we still need to furnish our computer lab and finish construction.