Background: The education sector is badly shaken in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic as nationwide closures have impacted 89% of the world’s student population. Aims and Methodology: This qualitative, exploratory study investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on the prevailing education divide through focus group discussion. Focus group included purposefully selected two teachers (one male & one female), two senior headteachers (one male & one female), two Taluka Education Officers (one male & one female), two Assistant District Education Officers (One male & one female) and two Assistant professors of Education (one male one female). The focus group interviews were conducted from the participants through conference calls. Results: Focus group discussion results showed that there could be variable impacts of COVID-19 across society, parents, input that students could receive from families during this pandemic, assessment, gender, and schools. These variable impacts could result in further widening of the existing education divide in Pakistan. The major reasons, as highlighted by the participants, are the weak education system and the prevalent digital divide in Pakistan due to the use of online learning resources. It is recommended that the authorities should engage economically sound local elders, Non-Government Organizations and volunteer educated persons to meet the technology-based needs.

Background/Objectives: Regular attendance at school is essential for allround development of students. The fundamental objective of this study was to utilize low-cost technology of cell phones to report to parents/guardians about the attendance of their children at schools and ascertain the impacts of cell phone calls on the attendance of Middle School students placed at risk of Drop out. Methods/Statistical analysis: This study was Experimental with a PretestPosttest Control Group by design and descriptive by purpose. The participants were 30 eight graders belonging to a Public Middle School of District Shaheed Benazirabad in Pakistan. These participants were then randomly assigned to Control and Experimental Groups (15 each). For intervention of making cell phone calls to parents/guardians to inform and ask them about the reason for the absence of their child, a teacher in each participating school was assigned this responsibility. The intervention lasted for 3 months. The data was analyzed using SPSS repeated measure t-test to calculate the significance of the impact of intervention. Findings: Results of the present study indicated that the attendance of Experimental Group on Posttest (75.07 %) was significantly higher than that on Pretest (62.87%). Novelty : This study utilizes existing technology available to almost everyone and bridges the parents and school administration to get the best outcome quickly; mobile-based intervention is simple and docile to regulate students’ performance at school level; it also improves the safety of the students.

Pakistan, in the last 10 years, has witnessed a fast and deep penetration of computers, internet, and android cell phones in the everyday lives of the teachers. The education process has yet to enjoy the full benefits of this technology despite the implementation of 3g/4g technologies and a surge of android cell phones. Therefore, teachers being an integral and vital part of the education process need to be well aware of the importance and should be trained at incorporating ICT in their daily teaching processes. This survey-based descriptive study gauged the familiarity of High School Teachers with ICT and its level of incorporation in the teaching process at the secondary level. The population of this study was 617 (N=617) High School Teachers belonging to 61 secondary schools of the district. About 245 teachers who participated in this study were randomly selected from 24 secondary schools. A self-developed questionnaire was distributed to these teachers. All the questionnaires were filled and returned. About 8 of these questionnaires were incomplete and therefore were deemed unusable. Therefore, only 237 questionnaires were used for data analysis. The findings of this study indicated that only 15% of the participants knew about ICT and its uses in the teaching process. Internet browsing, e-mailing and operating a CD Rom device as well-known aspects and simulations, problem-solving software, and graphics were some of the ICT aspects which the participants appeared to be familiar with. Findings about the level of incorporation in the teaching process revealed that computer labs were available in about 15% of the schools; about 55% of the participants owned android cell phones; 45% had self-access to the internet and these android phones were mostly used for communication with other teachers and parents. About 2% used ICT for teaching specific subjects; out of the 2% that used ICT for teaching, only 0.5 % used it as an essential part of daily instruction. The results also show that 0.25% of participants were formally trained in ICT. ICT was mostly used for finding and accessing and downloading educational materials. Less frequently used of ICT included making lectures, drills, and practice, preparing lesson plans, and video lecturing.