It was exactly this time last year that team ITA was wrapping up the ASER 2023 report rural and urban reaching out to 272,370 children (3-16 years) and 106,974 households for dissemination as an open-source public good highlighting the recurrent challenges of Foundational Learning for actionable solutions at scale. The ASER 2023 nationwide launch coincided with new government/s taking charge after the general elections for maximum impact of the widely benchmarked metric on foundational learning (FL). The much-awaited ASER Assessment App was under production enabling citizens, teachers, and parents to assess children directly on basic grade 2 level competencies anytime, anywhere to take action. We thank the government’s ownership and continued partnership with FCDO and UNICEF. ASER in Political Constituencies is a bold longitudinal political economy study (2024,2026 and 2028) underway in 8 constituencies including those of three sitting education ministers!

Building on the Pakistan Education Statistics (PES) report by the Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE) in January 2024, the Prime Minister of Pakistan declared a National Education Emergency (May) urging all provinces and partners to take action for 26 million out-of-school children and millions more out of learning. ITA’s work with the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training (MoFE&PT), Provincial Education & Literacy Departments, PIE, and the Pakistan Foundational Learning (PFL) Hub gained ground for common FL metric.

FL solutions of ECCE, Teaching at the Right Level (TARL) remedial catch-up support, SMS learning bytes and phone-based tutoring with testing (Youth Impact) continued for children across provinces, including refugees and host communities (KP/Balochistan) under the Multi-Year Resilience Program (MYRP)/VSO as well as the education foundations.

2024 has been a year of generating and distributing vibrant leveled content to children and teachers across Pakistan. 15 new children’s titles launched in December 2023 were distributed to 1550 schools benefiting more than 443,000 children across Pakistan, boosting literacy and social-emotional learning with empathy, resilience, and imagination. Parents and grandparents relived their childhoods with younger generations through these treasures. Workshops for authors and illustrators with ITA-Room to Read’s (RtR) country partnership produced 13 new books now under distribution to schools with strong themes about hope, climate change, resilience, inter-generational bonds, and child protection. We are grateful to Room to Read, VSO, the Bank of Punjab, and the Punjab Institute of Language Arts and Culture (PILAC). With PILAC 28 children’s books were adapted in Punjabi and Seraiki!  The School Education Department (SED) in Punjab and the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) stocked more than 10,000 school libraries with our publications! 10 libraries through philanthropy were established in Lahore and Bahawalpur government schools. Alliances fueled ITA’s mission, accelerating our movement for every child learning since 2000.  The award-winning animated stories ‘She Creates Change’ by RtR on the empowerment of adolescent girls through education were dubbed in four languages to be shared widely in 2025!  90 new titles in Sindhi and Urdu (grades 3-5) have been produced for the Sindh Education & Literacy Department (SELD) with training modules and lesson plans available on an app for the Sindh Early Learning Enhancement through Classroom Transformation Project reaching millions of children and 1000s of teachers.

In July 2024 we were thrilled at the outcome of the UK Govt. supported GOAL Khilo aur Barho Service Delivery project for 257,000 children/adolescents (70% girls) for implementation by a consortium led by the British Council with ITA as a key partner for core learning solutions. Partners have been hard at work to implement with the Governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in the driving seat. GOAL is poised for actions to mitigate the Education Emergency through foundational learning, life skills, and post-primary education. 

As a global Champion for the Learning Generation Initiative (LGI) successor to the Education Commission propagating three transformations on workforce/middle tier, system delivery, and brokering school health and nutrition through innovative financing is a privilege. Championing in catalyzing regional and national spaces of Arusha in Tanzania, and at APMED 6 in Thailand and Pakistan has been a privilege. At  APMED 6, as a keynote speaker I referenced the call to action at the Transforming Education Summit (2022) and upcoming Summit of the Future (Sept. 2024)  drawing upon strengths of heritage, growing polycrisis, open learning solutions for all, shifting demographics, digital/AI leaps and innovative financing such as IFFEd to be seized as accelerators.  In October, T4 and HP bestowed the Asia Education Medal 2024 on me out of the 10 amazing finalists leaders in education in Asia; my gratitude to the sponsors. The Asia Education Medal belongs to millions of children, teachers, supporters, and mentors propelling learning. I was honored to speak at the inspiring World School Summit in Dubai led by the global education broker/guru Vikas Pota of T4 in November 2024 packed with winning teachers, trend-leaders, and innovators for cutting-edge assessment, learning solutions driven by technology, AI, partnerships and passion above all.

Our South-South initiatives have pushed the momentum for foundational assessment and learning with ITA’s core presence at the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network, across 17 countries with stellar members across three continents of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The Network has been active in building consensus on the upgradation of SDG 4.1.1a at CIES in Miami (March 2024) with global influencers to testing next-generation tools for early years to age 10 spectrum to showcasing My Village movement for FLN in Nepal near the borders of Sarlahi and Bihar blurring South Asian boundaries through education. It inspired us to move forcefully as an authentic grounded movement. ITA will redouble its efforts to strengthen coalitions for FL across Brazil-Kenya and Pakistan under the South-South Program and the PAL Network to inform the 2030 and post-2030 agenda.

ITA’s Technical Assistance to the Govt. of Sindh through SELD and UNICEF for an evidence-based Five Year Roadmap through a Multi-sectoral approach for OOSC/Adolescents in 30 districts has been a rigorous engagement. To be led by the Chief Minister through a delivery unit with a High-Level Steering Committee, it has the potential to be a game changer to address the poly-crisis facing our children.

Each year the Yidan Prize Foundation enriches us with incredible laureates in research and development; it is a privilege to serve and play a role in its evolution; YPF is a global leader in what works at scale committed to the vision of “creating a better world through education“ under the leadership of Dr. Charles Yidan. The 2024 Yidan Prize was won by four pioneers  Professor Wolfgang Lutz, Professor Mark Jordans, Marwa Zahr, and Luke Stannard for their solutions on tapping resilience anchored in digital skills for addressing climate change, demographic trends, and  FL for children in conflict. It was an honor to celebrate the awardees and participate in the Summit on the theme of ‘Resilience’ in education. The YPF’s contribution to solutions across geographies as an open-source asset is limitless.  

At the heart of any lasting learning, creativity, design, agency, and co-creation ITA became the country partner for another global movement Design for Change led by Kiran Ben Sethi; a pedagogy-embedded design thinking, framed by the principles of feel, imagine, do and share (FIDS)-supporting school systems (public and private).   

The Pakistan Learning Festival in collaboration with the MoFE&PT (Nov. 2024) saw the biggest footfall in PLF’s history with over 200,000 children and youth enjoying 200 learning sessions held in an iconic government school where famous alumni including a Federal Secretary Education,  Former Air Chief Marshal, Mujahid Anwar, a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Athar Minallah, were present to inspire so many students with a core message ‘education transforms generations for life-just do it; we are proud of our public school alma mater’.  MoFE&PT will hold PLF annually. What a milestone to see ITA’s SEL/FL innovation in 2011 being mainstreamed in systems and schools! The incredible libraries including digi KutubKhana (library in a trunk) and the mobile Kitab-Mahol garee (Books-Environment/Climate Change rickshaw) are going strong in distant rural communities and urban schools in need and communities. Donate generously helping us reach 1 million children through our incredible learning outreach program.     

Well-being and dignity lie at the core of human empowerment, and ITA’s work with marginalized communities, adolescent girls, and women continued to gain momentum in 2024. Breaking taboos, promoting education, and improving menstrual health outcomes for girls nationwide through training and awareness campaigns remained a key focus. Sister Zeph, the Global Teacher Prize winner of 2023, became our first Menstrual Health (MH) Ambassador. The Menstrual Health Awareness & Action Network (MHAAN) was launched as a collaborative platform to foster partnerships, raise awareness, and promote actionable solutions. On the issue of menstrual hygiene management (MHM), ITA worked closely with the government and policymakers to advocate for a comprehensive menstrual health policy, institutionalizing it as a public health and education priority. We extend our gratitude to our industry partner, Embrace, for donating over 45,000 sanitary pads to girls and teachers in more than 300 schools across Pakistan.

In partnership with the British Council, ITA implemented the third phase of the Aawaz II program in Okara and Toba Tek Singh districts, focusing on key pathways: (1) raising awareness, changing attitudes, and promoting behaviors to reduce intolerance, discrimination, exploitation, and other harmful practices, and (2) increasing referrals and citizen engagement to address social exclusion. Marginalized groups, including women, youth, and children, were empowered through sustainable community forums, 28 Aawaz Aagahi Centres, District Alliances, and 56 Village and District Forums, fostering long-term behavior change and inclusivity at the grassroots. Aawaz II facilitated CNIC/NADRA ID registration for 1,000+ individuals, 50 transgender individuals & 450 women from excluded communities.

We launched the book titled “The Political Economy of Education in South Asia: Fighting Poverty, Inequality, and Exclusion” (Pakistan Edition). The book, authored by Professor John Richards, Dr. Manzoor Ahmed, and Mr. Shahidul Islam, was published in collaboration with the National Book Foundation in Islamabad and Karachi.

A huge thank you to our amazing teams, alumni, and partners across Pakistan and beyond! Your passion and hard work are the backbone of our mission to educate every child and inspire the love of learning that lasts a lifetime!

December 31, 2024