United News of Bangladesh

Shikho has launched “Think AI,” a free Bangla-language course designed to give students, teachers and workers a foundational understanding of artificial intelligence. The course, developed in collaboration with LightCastle Partners and supported by Meta, is available on Shikho’s learning platform, said a media statement. It consists of four lessons covering AI fundamentals, how generative tools work, the ethics of responsible use, and practical pathways for upskilling. It requires no prior technical background and is aimed at secondary and university students, educators, freelancers and young professionals across Bangladesh. The event recently held at a city hotel in Dhaka, drew more than 60 stakeholders from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, the private sector, and development partners. Discussions at the event centered on three objectives: distributing the course through Bangladesh's existing educational infrastructure, opening cross-sector dialogue on AI literacy and digital skills, and establishing a replicable model for public-private collaboration in digital skilling. Shahir Chowdhury, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shikho, framed AI as a civilizational shift and a defining opportunity for Bangladesh. "For the first time in modern history, geography doesn't have to dictate destiny," he said. Mahdi Amin, Adviser to the Prime Minister's Office (Education), said the government is moving to digitise the country's curriculum and standardise the quality of teaching across geographies, with AI as a core enabler.  "We are going to convert our curriculum to a digital curriculum. The finest teachers in Dhaka, the content they get access to, will have the same content in the remote villages," he said. "For our digital classroom and One Teacher One Tab programmes, AI will play an instrumental role." Rehan Asif Asad,Adviser to the Prime Minister's Office (ICT), said the government's first priority is laying the connectivity and data infrastructure that will allow AI to work at national scale. "If I don't have connectivity, I have nothing. For AI to work, it is absolutely critical to have the data," he said. “With that infrastructure in place, for the first time, the barrier is almost blurring between Rangpur and Palo Alto." The panel discussion, which brought together the senior government advisers and Meta's regional public policy leadership, was moderated by Bijon Islam, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LightCastle Partners.

Video streaming service provider Bongo has partnered with edtech or educational technology company Shikho to improve the video learning experience for online learners in Bangladesh. This partnership will enable learners to get a faster experience and also learn offline without the internet. Shikho, launched in November 2020, has over 350,000 learners across 64 districts where paying students spend over an hour learning daily. Read 7 Local Startups Get Tk 150m Funds from Startup Bangladesh Limited The company provides academic courses for Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) and competitive university entrance exams. Recently it acquired Bohubrihi, an online educational platform for professionals. Bongo has over 3 million unique viewers with 200,000 people every day watching content all over Bangladesh. It also works with over 550 content creators locally and internationally including creators from India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Canada. Read The Emerging Logistics Tech Startups, Courier, Delivery Services in Bangladesh Using Bongo's video solution, Shikho will be able to improve its streaming experience and get very detailed video analytics information to ensure the company knows what quality content is working and also how that content is reaching the end-user. Bongo will also provide an offline learning experience in the future where students can simply go to a wifi hotspot to download the content and learn at home without any internet at their own pace.