ISLAMABAD ( STAFF REPORT )
Jazz, Pakistan’s number one 4G operator and the largest internet and broadband service provider facilitated Namal Institute during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown in teaching students without access to the internet or a smart device. The product, ‘Business Line’, introduced by Jazz Business, the country’s largest digital and ICT solutions provider, gave students access to pre-recorded lectures on a free-of-cost mobile number.
Using this feature of Business Line, the institute’s professors record their lectures over the phone and share them with the students via a mobile number. The students then call the number and listen to the lecture.
“The remote learning solution we offer demonstrated our commitment to quality education in terms of content and interactive digital tools. During the lockdown, it was clear that we had to combine technology and education to ensure that our learning outcomes are not negatively impacted, especially for students from underserved regions”,” said Syed Ali Naseer, Chief Business Officer at Jazz.
“Namal serves a large variety of students mostly coming from remote areas. Pandemic posed a huge challenge to us as more than 50% of our students had to face connectivity issues. In this troubling scenario, we needed a solution to keep teaching our students. Thankfully, Jazz came forward with an innovative solution that gave access to pre-recorded audio lectures to all our students,” said Dr. Umar Farooq, Assistant HOD of Business, Namal Institute.
Jazz also partnered with several other educational institutes to facilitate e-learning. Jazz Business provided special internet packages and MiFi devices to the staff of AIOU, LUMS, University of Lahore and Root Millennium, fixed-line data solutions to the staff of LGS, and an exclusive package for access to Knowledge Platform’s online educational libraries. Affordable weekly and monthly data & voice packages were also introduced for easy utility of teachers as well as students.
Even prior to the pandemic, Jazz has actively been working to utilize its resources and digital tools to provide better learning opportunities to students. The mobile operator also launched Jazz Parho, an Android-friendly mobile app, which gives students free-of-cost access to learning resources.