Pakistan Spelling Bee (PSB) is organized by Storykit (Private) Limited. Founded in 2018, Storykit makes educational and activity-based learning products, and conducts storytelling sessions and workshops for students and teachers. Storykit has carried out successful large-scale projects for Google Inc, Google Foundation, UNESCO, and Tides Foundation as a service provider, sub-partner, and product supplier.
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is the Founder and CEO of Storykit, and an internationally acclaimed author, linguist and translator of over thirty critically-acclaimed publications for adults and children. He is an international authority on Urdu classical literature, the founding editor of the Library of Urdu Classics (urduclassics.com) and the Online Urdu Thesaurus (urduthesaurus.com), and serves on the Advisory Board of University of Chicago’s South Asian Literature in Translation (SALT) Project. In 2018, Farooqi founded STORYKIT which develops activity-based learning products and tools, and implements them using Farooqi’s distinctive Memorise, Connect, Improvise (MCI) method of interactive storytelling. Farooqi launched the first Pakistan Spelling Bee competition in 2023, which brought Urdu Spelling Bee into national focus, and for the first time devised Urdu Spelling Bee rules.
(In Alphabetical Order)
Dr Faizuddin Ahmed earned his PhD from the University of Karachi. He has been teaching Urdu O-Level, A-Level, graduate and post-graduate classes for over two decades. He is the author of a number of textbooks for O- and A-Level syllabi, and various research papers published in peer-reviewed research journals, recognized by the Higher Education of Pakistan (HEC). He is also vastly experienced in conducting workshops for Cambridge and OUP, that have benefitted hundreds of Urdu teachers.
Dr. Faisal Bari is an economist with over twenty-five years of research and teaching experience in the areas of Economics of Education, Philosophy of Education, Social Protection, Industrial Organization, Microeconomics, Game Theory, and Economic Development. He is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan. He was also the Dean for the School of Education at LUMS (2020-2023). He is CEO (Jan 2024-present) and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS). Prior to this, Dr. Bari was CEO for IDEAS (2015-2020), Executive Director for Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre (2004-2006), and Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University, New Haven (2000-2001). A former Rhodes Scholar (Pakistan-1988), Dr. Bari has a BA (Honours) from Oxford, and a doctorate from McGill University. His research has been published in numerous journals and books. He is a regular columnist for the daily Dawn, Pakistan.
Ismat Riaz is the author of OUP’s history series ‘Understanding History’ for Classes 6, 7 and 8 which is now in its 2nd Edition, ‘Social Understanding’ for Primary Classes and ‘I am Pakistani’ books on Pakistaniat for Classes 1-8. She holds a Master’s degree in Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment from UCL’s prestigious Institute of Education. She has nearly 50 years of experience as a teacher and teacher trainer. Academically, she is on the board of the UK educational journal, “Improving Schools”, and reviews their journal articles. She has contributed articles on education for Dawn newspaper for five years. She has been a panellist on History and Education for the 2014 Karachi Literature Festival. Over the years, she has contributed to seminars on government policy and practice and curriculum development. She is the recipient of the Anita Ghulam Ali Award 2013 for Best Practices in Teaching and a Presidential Appreciation Award 2018 for her work on Pakistan Studies and History books.
Mosharraf Zaidi has over two decades of experience in analysing and shaping policy in complex political environments. He has spearheaded research, analysis and delivery for a wide array of reform interventions in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as in the South Asia region. His work intersects political economy, strategic communications and change management. His most recent work for Tabadlab, the think tank and policy advisory firm he founded in 2018, includes work on improved foreign direct investment, technology and digitalisation, housing and urban development. From 2013 through 2018, he led the Alif Ailaan campaign for education in Pakistan. He served as principal Policy Advisor at Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2013, where he worked in crisis diplomacy and established the Public Diplomacy division. Mr. Zaidi was Governance Adviser for the UK Government’s FCDO (formerly DFID) from 2004 through 2008, focusing on tax and revenue reform with the World Bank, and improved public financial management in the Punjab province, with the Asian Development Bank. He writes a regular column for The News in Pakistan, and his writing appears frequently in a variety of other publications including Foreign Policy, the New York Times and the Indian Express.