Rehan School
Education is a basic right of all human beings. Rehan Allahwala thinks that everyone in Pakistan has a right to educate themselves and become successful in their chosen fields. But 43% of the population in Pakistan is illiterate.
Rehan thinks that this could be achieved by using simple mobile phones. He believes that inexpensive mobile phones without Internet access can do this revolution.
According to my understanding, Rehan School is a mobile phone based virtual school system that allows anyone who has a mobile phone access the prerecorded video lessons free of charge. With expanding mobile coverage in Pakistan, this will be an exciting way to reach the rural illiterate communities. Since this is a free service, millions of Pakistanis can benefit.
This school is available nationwide in Pakistan in all the DVD and mobile phone shops distributed by the largest content distribution company CD Bank Pakistan.
The price of this content is free, but the mobile shop keeper may charge a small fee of 50 rupees to transfer the content in the required format on the mobile phone’s memory card. Later on, this video content can be given by that phone user to anyone else, using Bluetooth for free.
There are 6 billion mobile devices in the world as per Wikipedia. In Pakistan, there are 112 million mobile phones out of the 180-million population. A brand new video playing mobile phone is available in Pakistan for 1,150 Rupees. So, Rehan School content can reach a wider population. Celebrities in Pakistan have already committed to the project by rendering their services free of charge.
Nanda Wanninayaka 