Dubai’s 'Coded Minds' to launch education services in Pakistan from Jan 2020

Omar Farooqui, founder and president of Coded Minds, a Dubai-based global education company, announcing the launch of the firm’s Pakistan operations in Karachi, Pakistan on July 3, 2019. (AN Photo)

• Firm offers large range of technology-based courses in iSTEAM subjects
• It is the first UAE firm to invest in Pakistan's education sector

KARACHI: A Dubai-based global education company, Coded Minds, is set to launch its operations in Pakistan from January 2020, the firm’s CEO said on Wednesday, and bring iSTEAM (Innovation, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) learning to Pakistan. 
Nearly 22.5 million of Pakistan’s estimated 50 million children are out of school, even though the country has a network of 220,000 schools and has stepped up its education budget by nearly 15 percent each year since 2010.
“Our Pakistan operations will start from January 2020,” Omar Farooqui, founder and president of Coded Minds, told reporters at a press briefing. “We are now officially registered in Pakistan with the aim to provide the best education to the young generation of the country so that they can play a crucial role not just for Pakistan but also at the global level.”
He said the company planned to invest around $5 million to train teachers and provide curriculum in Pakistan, starting from Karachi and moving onwards to Lahore, Islamabad and other cities. 
“The investment will be increased exponentially with the passage of time,” Farooqui, a Saudi national, said.
Following the Finland and Singapore education models, Coded Minds offers a large range of modernized project-based courses, and has developed a disruptive business model that aims to change the dynamics of the education sector though practical and culture-specific learning that dispenses of the idea of exams. 
Since its launch in 2017, the company has grown rapidly in the Middle East and Asia and will be the first UAE-based company to invest in the education sector of Pakistan.
Farooqui dispelled the impression that technology-based education was expensive, saying he intended to bring advanced technology education to the grassroots level in Pakistan and around the world. 
“There is a major misconception that technology education is expensive. It is completely the other way round,” Farooqui said. “We believe quality education has to be affordable and reachable to the grassroots level.”
He said fees charged by the firm would be one fourth of what was being charged by private schools in Pakistan.
“Keeping in view our system’s performance in UAE, parents in Pakistan have already started asking for early launch of operations in the country,” Farooqui said. “Coded Minds has plans to introduce global learning systems across the board in Pakistan, no matter what your social and financial status.”