Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi & Foundational Literacy & Numeracy
Idara-e-Taleem o Aagahi (ITA) is a non-government organisation that has been working across Pakistan since 2000. ITA’s vision is to build a nation-wide movement to improve education, especially early years foundational skills and remedial education. Along with building a social movement, ITA develops teaching and learning materials, children’s books, and assessments and works with government and private schools in Pakistan to improve learning outcomes.
Foundational Learning Grades Covered
ECCE grades 1,2,3, 4 and 5 mapped to SLOs of the National Curriculum for English, Urdu, and Maths
Foundational Learning Materials
- Baseline diagnostic tools
- Teaching Learning materials
- Teacher Training Modules
- Training of Trainers (ToT)
- Assessments
- Children’s Levelled Storybooks and Library set up
- ECE Kits (numeracy, literacy, STEM)/Stories/Arts Crafts/Play Based Parenting
- Life Skills animations
Type of Material
- Daily lesson plans, Teaching guides,
- Storybooks, Workbooks, Classroom material, Activity Sheets
- Learning through Harmonies
- Life Skills /animations
- Hybrid teaching-learning materials
- Online Formative and summative assessment tools
Extent of Coverage
Geography: Across All Provinces and Areas of Pakistan
Target Groups: Children in need; girls; extremely vulnerable/poor/refugees
Duration: 4-8 weeks; 3 months (short term), 6 months (medium), 12 months to 18 months (long term)
Circumstances: Normal Periods and in Emergencies/Disasters/Displacements
Post Emergencies and periods of stability across geographies and customized
Diagnostics : Teachers Need Assessments Tools
Teacher Training: ITA provides training on foundational literacy and numeracy content and pedagogy with assessments This includes all-around content and training for Early Childhood (ECE), Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), TARL- ConnectEd-phone based numeracy, establishment of school libraries with 700+ titles approved by the SED/Punjab; library management modules; reading hour (shared paired, individual and read aloud reading); understanding levelled storybooks on multiple topics including climate change with maker art kits etc. Life Skills are both embedded and standalone with animations. These training are customised for clients/govt. Master Trainers or Teachers, as per need and circumstance. Most trainings are 3-6 days, followed by monthly or quarterly follow-ups (school or cluster-based refreshers as per the contextual requirement. In addition to this, the training team provides support and mentoring to trainers/teachers as well. These training sessions are conducted by both in-house and external teams, and delivered via online, in-person and hybrid methodology. The cost per teacher varies by geography, scope, materials, and services including assessments and evaluation.
The foundational literacy modules cover the essentials of reading and writing with comprehension in English and Urdu, including phonics and phonemic awareness and teaching strategies such as shared, paired and independent reading; reading aloud, explicit vocabulary instruction, repeated readings, and the Combined Action for Maximized Learning (CaMAL) methodology; phone/SMS based tutoring. The foundational numeracy course trains teachers on facilitating inquiry-based learning and differentiated instruction in the classroom by using techniques of scaffolding, visual representation and diagrams, and problem-solving strategies across TARL and ConnectEd. Read Aloud books are available on YouTube.
According to ITA’s pre and post-training assessments, these trainings result in improved student learning outcomes and classroom practices alongside improving student retention rates.
Teaching and Learning Material
ITA has developed a range of teaching and learning material for ECCE (kit) foundational literacy and numeracy for Grades 1 to 3/4, developed /adapted by the in-house team along with experts. The teaching material includes play-based parenting guides, ECCE routines; daily lesson plans, teaching guides, and comprehensive manuals that support teachers’ pedagogy and content needs. These materials have been developed, refined and updated based on several years of lessons learned in implementation, from the deserts of Balochistan to the coast of Sindh and the mountains of Gilgit Baltistan. ITA has developed levelled readers and workbooks with activity-based exercises aligned to the National Curriculum’s SLOs and is available in digital and printed formats.
See the table below for details by level of FL.
| Learning Level | Training of Trainer Materials | Teacher Guides | Teaching and Learning Materials/Kits | Assessments | Accessible Links |
| ECE/ECCE | Training Guide Based on 5 Modules B.Ed 9 modules for ECCE diploma /certification How to Use ECCE Kit How to make a Big Book How to conduct baselines | Teacher guides with extensive details for planning for school year | Urdu, English and Math Workbooks for cognitive physical, social, emotional development for children ECCE Kits Play Based Learning Kits ECCE Adapted materials for play based parenting etc. 1-60 months | Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes (MELQO) aligned to NCC wit Model / MELE PAL- ELANA, Early Language, Literacy & Numeracy Assessment IDELA- International Development & Early Learning Assessment Adapted Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes | https://itacec.org/early-childhood-care-education/ Stories read aloud https://pakistanlearningfestival.com/aao-sunno-kahani/ StoryBytes/Flipped https://pakistanlearningfestival.com/learning-flipped/ Arts and Crafts |
Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Chalo Parho Barho | ITA’s Trainers deliver 7 days of training to Master Trainers and Teachers with follow-ups | Urdu, English and Math Teacher Manuals are available with detailed activities and pedagogical insights Life Skills | Urdu, English and Math Workbooks for students that foster contextualized foundational learning ITA- Books purchase online & set of 28 in 6 languages | ASER Tool is for Assessment of FLN in TaRL | |
| Life Skills Animations 8-14 + & Adolescent Girls She Creates Change | TOT Guides | Animations in 4-5 Languages (9 life skills) Animation stories (5) | Instructional guides on how to use Completion Jan 31 2025 | All accessible in 5 languages of Pakistan 4 Languages of Pakistan | https://itacec.org/SiyaniSahelian/life_skills_based_education.html |
| ConnectEd | TOT Booklet. Delivers 3 Days of training to Master Trainers and Teachers | Mathematics Teacher’s Booklet for Phone-based Tutoring | SMS-based Question bank for four Basic Operations | ASER, FLN Application | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h8k1TOKXDAPpG83HibKBsRF2z3pSzFu3/view?usp=sharing |
School Library & Reading Hour | Baseline/diagnostics and How to Set up library; Reading Hour Learning Domains | Modules for a 6-day training and 4 days Training modules (FDE/ QAED) Storytelling | Learning Kits Handouts List of Books in the library by level; Check out guides Stories on You Tube | M&E Tools | https://itapublications.pakistanlearningfestival.com/ https://pakistanlearningfestival.com/aao-sunno-kahani/ |
| Pakistan Learning Festival | No Baseline Diagnostics required | Learning through Harmonies- Gaain aur Seekhein | Songs: Poems Mapped to NCP with Learning Kits | Feedback Tools | https://pakistanlearningfestival.com/gain-aur-seekhain/ |
Training of Trainers
ITA has programs for capacity building of private and government trainers on ECE, Foundational Learning and digital initiatives. Master Trainers trained for 7 days with follow-up and refresher trainings scheduled every 3-6 months. ITA’s Lead Trainer team also evaluates the teacher trainings and provides mentorship and support to the trainers via hybrid sessions to improve overall outcomes.
Teacher Training
ITA conducts 6-7-day teacher training for each stream (ECE, TaRL, School Libraries). These can be online, in-person, or distributed across months as per the context; can be adjusted in duration. The teachers are provided guidance on assessment, classroom management, pedagogy, and material content appropriate for the grade level. A popular feature of ITA’s teacher training is the reliance on cultural knowledge based on the traditions of communities. We train teachers to create content and teach students using local examples.
Teaching & Learning Materials (TLMs)
ITA has developed several materials to be used by teachers and students alike. These are not only limited to students’ workbooks for ECE and TaRL but also include activity kits with story books, ECE Kit with learning material such as flash cards, texture cards, puzzles, arts craft material, classroom material for games & sports, academic charts, and several guides for play-based activities. Many of these include digital video instruction as well. The TLMs for ECE can be accessed here.
Assessment
ITA has expertise in using various internationally acclaimed assessment tools as well as developing our assessment based on the Pakistani context and curriculum and global proficiency framework (GPF). These assessments are also approved by the respective provincial government departments. These include ELANA, ICAN and ASER Tools for FLN; for ECE it is adapted MELQO, IDELA and PAL-ELANA
ITA has also developed several digital methodologies to assess learning levels for foundational learning including the FLN app and ASER Mobile Application. In many programs, ITA often uses digital tools for assessment and reporting like CSPro or Kobo Toolbox.
Evaluation
ITA’s Chalo Parrho Barrho /TARL camps resulted in approximately 80% of children transitioning to higher proficiency levels across all three subjects – English, Maths, and Urdu/local languages. A report from 2011 shows that the percentage of children who could do division improved from 1% to 26%, children who could read a sentence in Urdu improved by 17% and there was a 31% improvement in children who could read a sentence in English (Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, 2011).
Below are results from the baselines and endline assessments conducted during the Chalo Parrho Barrho remediation camps.
Access: ITA’s assessment tools are open source and can be accessed below:
