From the challenges he had to overcome when he was a student to the hope of providing an easier access to education to children in Pakistan. Here’s the story of Rooshan Aziz, co-founder of Maqsad, the man who, during the pandemic, decided to leave his role as an associate of BNP bank to came back home and make education more accessible to 100 million Pakistani students.
It all traces back to Rooshan’s childhood. Experiencing in first person the situation of the Pakistani education system gave him the motivation to rise to the challenge and build his EdTech startup when the pandemic broke out.
(aka 44% of this age group’s total population) in 2016*
have access to university education in 2018
in Pakistan in 2021
* The percentage is significantly higher regarding girls, children who live in rural areas and come from poor families.
What leads a person to such a radical career change? Was there a specific episode that sparked it? It all started from a visit home: the realization that there was a different way students could access educational content.
Not only in Pakistan but all around the world, the internet is mobile-first.
(aka 68% of the global population), used mobile phones in early 2023, 3% more than the year before (Digital 2023: Global Overview Report)
access the internet using a mobile phone (Digital 2023: Global Overview Report)
in more than 30 countries around the world (Internet Traffic from Mobile Devices: Apr 2023)
Building a company comes with many difficult challenges, but there are moments when you realize that all the effort you’re putting in your venture is worth it. With more than 1.7 million users, in just a matter of a few years Maqsad had an extraordinary success and impacted the lives of so many students and parents.
In Urdu, the Pakistani language, maqsad means ”purpose, motivation, aim”: was there a better word to name a platform that’s revolutionizing education? But this is only the beginning, as the future of education is something that concerns everyone, not just children.
