A Tale Of Two Villages Challenges And Opportunities In Sadri Jadeed And Ali Pur Shumali

Pakistan has been facing a plethora of challenges which have impacted the education sector massively in core areas of access, equity and quality. Among these challenges, out of school children, learning losses due to unprecedented circumstances such as COVID-19, the monster floods, displacements etc. and the overall learning poverty in the education sector, especially foundational learning have resulted in many setbacks.

For this reason, a cross sectoral coalition has emerged in Pakistan which aims to work on combating learning losses and learning poverty in terms of foundational learning. The goals, targets as well as strategy and plan of action is discussed here in detail. Under the South-South Fellowship All Children Learning, is the main goal and agenda for the coalition.

One of the core features under this agenda are the geographically designated clusters at local level within one or more provinces. These clusters are identified through a systematic evidence-based approach by the South-South Fellows/institutions covering, demographics, learning poverty in foundational learning, socio-economic profiles and education institutions present in areas. The clusters chosen are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Swabi), Punjab (Muzaffargarh) and Sindh (Ghotki and Shikarpur) respectively.

This tale begins from two villages in these clusters, which have full potential to become part of the history of education reforms in Pakistan; Sadri Jadid in Swabi and Ali Pur Shumali in Murdabad, Muzaffargarh. These two villages and their government schools may be considered the entry point to the two clusters in two districts and provinces. The villages present some intricate challenges which concern accessibility of education for vulnerable groups, foundational learning and education systems. This makes these villages rather unique but they also represent cogs in the larger systems’ wheel.

Furthermore, it is also very thought-provoking to observe that while both villages are distinct due to the geographies, socio-cultural dispositions and even to some extent political facets, both of them have some sharp similarities relating to socio-economic, gendered exclusions, development and educational structures.

Taking a broader look at the two villages, one gets a clearer picture of what makes them similar and what makes them distinct.

Sadri Jadid:

Hidden away in the core of Swabi after traveling alongside a green lake, is the village known as Sadri Jadid. It has a population of 7072 as per the Census conducted in 2017. The village is contained in an area of 1224 km2 and presents a scenic landscape. The village is home to agriculture crops which contribute to its local industry. These crops are wheat, corn, sugarcane and tobacco and vegetables, above all peas. The total irrigated land is around 87% which produces 1500 kg per acre annually.

On 6th December 2022, a brief visit to the Village Council, Sadri was conducted where organizations from the fellowship were represented by teams from Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi, Tabadlab and FBISE. The village had already been identified by the Secretary E&SED KP, a Fellow of the South South Program.

The team was greeted by a village council which comprised the Secretary of Sadri Jadid local government, three school teachers who taught in the boys’ primary school and were the focal persons of the council and other village elderly were keen to share their views on education in their village.

It has a total of 3 schools, two of them are Government Primary Schools for Boys while there is only one school which caters to girls at a primary level. There are two more schools which are community schools and cater to out of school children.

The story unfolded when the team was communicated about the pressing issues faced on foundational education; from out of school children, lack of accessibility and mobility, lack of middle and high schools, to poverty, lack of awareness and interest for education by many parents, child labor for daily wages in peas and tobacco fields, lack of staff and adequate teacher training and skill building for teachers, language barriers from Pushto to Urdu and English for both students and teachers as well as parents.

These issues stood out as the core ones and were reiterated by teachers, village council members which were represented by the parents as well.
When the schools were visited, while the staff were open to engagement, the children had trouble understanding the questions when they were asked in Urdu. Most of the questions had to be translated by their teachers to Pushto. This of course has led to Learning Poverty because it is very difficult for the students to contextualize and understand the curriculum which is being taught to them in a language, they have a difficulty grasping

In terms of providing support for a school for children with disabilities, the story became more twisted; many parents refused to even acknowledge that the village hosts any such children while some of the teachers did say that such a facility and support needs to be provided because there are some children who would find this facility helpful.

In summary, the village is the perfect prototype lab which needs to be addressed within a systems-based approach out of this runnel within foundational learning so that the future of the village, its children and future generations can be safeguarded.

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Ali Pur Shumali:

Traveling on the road towards Ali Pur Shumali in Muzaffargarh district from Multan amidst the chaotic traffic and the sandy pathway, some great challenges awaited the South South Fellows team, comprising senior representatives from the School Education Department, South Punjab and Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA). The village is a modestly large one with an estimated population of approximately 7000. 13th December, 2022 was a landmark date for the South-South Fellowship team visit to Union Council Muradabad, Muzaffargarh. The rationale behind this visit was to engage with the locals in the community, stakeholders as well as the only school team in the area in order to move forward with the locally relevant plan of action for the cluster.

Though the village is surrounded by visibly sandy lands, there is also a serene sight of greenery with date trees and multiple fish farms. These farms are the local industry of the village and perhaps the entire sub-district as well. These are also the model fish farms which were perhaps the first of their kind in the country as these models were replicated in other parts of Punjab as well.

Ali Pur Shumali in Muradabad union council/cluster has only one Government Girls Elementary school with boys studying alongside girls up to Grade 5. It does not have any boy’s school; the one that lies adjacent to the girls’ school lies abandoned, sacrificed to decision on rationalization in a large village with over 12 kanals of generous land given to SED, neither is there any acceptance of disability prevalence nor provision for support to CWDs. There are no high schools for either gender.

When the team arrived at the school, the principal, teachers, stakeholders and students all seemed eager in their daily learning routines. There was perhaps something in that entire school which presented an eagerness for education and students who were deeply engrossed in their class routines.

The classes were visited and students observed where they were asked about education, how they see it through their eyes and asked them about their homework, and above all if they have any siblings or relatives’ children who do not go to school.

Following this, community leaders and parents, including fathers and mothers, sat down for a community dialogue with the team and spoke openly about the challenges and problems they have been facing in terms of education. The vibrance of the Katcheri was unique because one saw parents; fathers, mothers and grandparents, elderly wise men of the village and youngsters as well. They were all represented and spoke about the common cause of education and how it has been going through difficulties for them.

The problems they faced were around themes like a large number of out of school children out of which the majority appeared to be boys. Other issues which marred them were drop-outs of boys and girls from early childhood program upwards, the former due to lack of schools; primary, middle and high school, as well as dropping out to work in nearby fish farms for daily wages. The girls drop out due to early marriages, lack of awareness about continued girls’ education, lack of high schools and the fact that the girls’ elementary school has been merged for both genders up to primary grades (5) and most parents are reluctant to let their daughters’ study alongside boys.

It was also observed how the locals in the Katcheri were so dismissive of having any children with disabilities even though the household survey underway reveals obvious presences of children with disabilities.

This makes the village an ideal lab for learning and education reforms on a localized and manageable scale. Once that is done, it is hoped that the village soon meets All Children Learning and in schools’ education security standards and is able to become a beacon of light which spearheads foundational learning reforms in South Punjab and eventually Pakistan.

Challenges and Opportunities Both villages, in KP and Punjab are poles apart in many cultural, political and geographical dimensions but there are too many contrasts which make these villages stand out. Both of them present multiple opportunities in the face of the grave challenges for out of school children, cultural and social anathemas for lack of girls’ education, child marriages, child labor for daily wages as a root cause for boys dropping due to extreme poverty and work side by side with their parents including accessibility and mobility issues for parents who are reluctant to send their children far from their homes to attain education as there are lack of schools in both villages.

While these challenges are mighty, the will power and engagement levels of the village Katchery, teachers and the children/adolescents in both areas was mightier. They were all eager to begin work on education and make sure that their children at least have better and brighter futures. Most importantly there was a willingness to participate with the team as well so their children can also stand at par with the educated people of the country. Many youths agreed to join hands as volunteers for the door-to-door survey to ascertain how many children out of school and how many not of them are not learning the basics.

This opens up a unique chance and opportunity for the South-South Fellowship coalition to come together, involving the relevant government institutions, non-state and private organizations who have their own unique resources and skill sets and also get the involvement of political leadership on board to pave the way for this movement. It goes without saying that the success of this coalition will be achieved once there is alignment in the actors involved within it to take bolder steps in the prototype clusters like Ali Pur Shumali and Sadri Jadid. It is only through these nodes that other villages can catch the wave and replicate the same reforms within their schools. The fellowship is unique because it has the potential to evade the cycle of conformity and lacklusterness in the education system of Pakistan which seems to have been hit by a stagnation of sound action and system-based policies.

The tales of these two villages are not over, because the Fellowship team has just begun the survey with all children 3-16 years of age which will soon generate vibrant evidence to come up with proper solutions together. This is the only way forward for transformation of the system of education in the country.