Asian Development Bank believes Pakistan is the “least ready” country for digital education

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its report titled “Toward mature digital education ecosystems, the Digital Education Readiness Framework”, has stated that Pakistan is the least ready country for digital education among the developing member countries (DMC).

The report has highlighted major areas of improvement in Pakistan, including low internet connectivity, low fixed broadband speeds, high fixed line broadband costs and low rural electricity supply. Only 34.1 percent of households are connected with an internet connection.

There is an absence of teacher training in information and communication technology (ICT) skills with a special focus on delivering online education. Pakistan has also the lowest shares of ICT graduates from the total pool of tertiary education graduates-1.1 percent- standing at the lowest among all 10 ADB members.

However, Pakistan has surpassed all countries in its cable TV subscriptions coverage with over 482 subscriptions per 1000 persons. The country’s household TV coverage rate is at 62.8 percent.

Six of the ten DMCs are in the “initial category of readiness”. They are Cambodia, Bangladesh, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan and Fiji in order.

The other four countries in the “emerging category of readiness” are Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Uzbekistan.

Fixed broadband prices play an important role in the ranking of these countries. While Cambodia, Indonesia and Pakistan are least affordable in broadband, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Uzbekistan are the most affordable.

The difference between the model country’s normalized score and the highest-scoring country’s score is almost 45 points.