Virtual-Intensive Software Development Program (V-ISDP)

Abstract

Approximately 3.5 million students are enrolled in 35,337 Madaris (religious seminaries) in Pakistan. This means that these institutions account for 9.3 percent of the total school enrolment in the country. These range from very small with less than 100 students to big ones with several thousand students. However, they all teach religious texts and provide no technical/vocational training. As a result, when students graduate from these Madaris, they have no marketable skill that they can use to earn a living. Most of them end up being imams in mosques or teaching Quran to children. Because of the economic hardship, some become easy recruits for terrorist organizations. About four years ago, the Intensive Software Development Program was launched with the objective of providing software development training to the graduates from Madaris. The program started with a humble background but produced some excellent success stories; details are available at www.isdp.info. One of the problems that came to light in these four years was that many students could not afford to spend another year without earning a living due to their socio-economic background. It was proposed that the same curriculum be introduced in the last one year of madrasa education. This will allow students to cover SW development training alongside their standard madrassa educatio