e-Newsletter, January 2021

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) or the "Centre of Education and Consciousness" Public Trust, established in 2000, is a civil society organization focused on addressing the profound education crisis of Pakistan through action and policy research, service-delivery and advocacy. ITA has been a strong education champion across Pakistan with field programs covering complex aspects of: Access, Learning, Quality, Evaluating Low Cost Private Schools, Inclusion, Child Protection, Gender Justice and Education, Tolerance, Citizenship, Health and Hygiene Interventions, and Technical and Vocational Training Programs with government, communities and public and private school systems.

Consultations for the National Education Policy 2021

ITA is well known for its work across Pakistan and beyond, especially on citizen-led countrywide initiative on quality, research and governance - ASER Pakistan. The role of various active stakeholders, including youth, teachers, civil society and industry is critical to ensure wider ownership and success of the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2021. ITA also led consultations for NEP 2016 and engaged various segments who may be directly or indirectly affected by the alteration in this policy. Similarly for NEP 2021, ITA is engaging various segments and holding online consultations on areas such Assessment, Early Childhood Education, Inclusive Education to highlight current gaps in NEP 2009, current practices and share consolidated recommendations with MoFE&PT and provincial education departments for the NEP 2021. http://itacec.org/nep2021

Children’s Literature Festival

Pakistan Learning Festival (PLF)

CLF is going to hold a multi-site,
multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural PAKISTAN LEARNING FESTIVAL for ALL Children, Teachers, and Families from 8-10 February, 2021. CLF is collaborating with the British Council, Oxford University Press, Children Library Complex, National History Museum, The Citizens Archive of Pakistan and many others to bring STEAM Storytelling, Activity Based Learning, Book Launches, Open Mic Sessions and many more learning opportunities for both students and teachers. To attend the events you can join us on Zoom and Facebook Live from 8-10 February, 2021. Register for the event by clicking on this link: https://forms.gle/zwRgWChTVTKEzJqDA

Digi Kutub Khanay (DKK)

Digi Kutub Khana (DKK) is a learning living library (3L) - an initiative of the CLF and ITA. DKK or 3L aims to mitigate learning losses and accelerate lifelong learning in Pakistan, through culturally relevant and community-based learning. ITA CEO Baela Raza Jamil appeared on Coffee Table Conversation with Mina Malik on Indus News to talk about the importance of education. Support the magic of living learning libraries in Pakistan. https://youtu.be/lFJjsitmkjY

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) - Measuring Learning Losses due to Covid-19

ASER 2021 aims to measure the learning losses due to Covid-19 and school closures in 2020. The household survey will be conducted in 16 rural districts of Pakistan, achieving a target of 9,600 households. Districts selection has been completed and survey tools have been updated to ensure that different influencing factors of learning losses could be measured accurately and comprehensively.

ASER - Katchi Abadis

Under the banner of ASER, ITA has launched an ambitious project to explore the quality of education and learning in the Katchi Abadis of Pakistan. In 2021, a pilot study will be conducted in the Katchi Abadis of Karachi and Lahore. Data is being obtained from the Directorate General of Katchi Abadis of each province. Further, preliminary field visits have also begun to map the Katchi Abadis. This comprehensive mapping process is the first of its kind in Pakistan which will not only facilitate the latter ASER survey process but also allow future researchers to explore Katchi Abadis in depth.

Siyani Sahelian

On this International Day of Education 2021, Siyani Sahelian celebrated the inclusive effort of all stakeholders working in the education space to adapt to the new normal. With times of crisis upon us, it was all the more important to have all contributors of the education landscape, whether it be the students, the teachers or the parents of the beneficiaries to come together to not just adapt to the new normal but also play their part in ensuring maximum output in the post-Covid19 world order. Celebrations include virtual activities – in form of documentary and messages from the stakeholders and beneficiaries and classrooms activities across all three districts Hubs and centres.

Creating Spaces

Under Creating Spaces project, ITA in collaboration with Oxfam in Pakistan conducted different sessions with women, girls, men, youth and influencers around Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) and Child, Early & Forced Marriage (CEFM), Women leadership, Advocacy and support systems with Women Group in Jhelum, Kasur, ShahdadKot and Shaheed Benazirabad. Moreover, ITA and Punjab Women Protection Authority (PWPA) in collaboration with Oxfam in Pakistan conducted training of relevant departments i.e. Punjab Police, Social Welfare Department, Child Protection Bureau, Punjab Social Protection Authority, Public Prosecution and PWPA and Ms. Kaneez Fatima, Chairperson Punjab Women Protection Authority appreciated the participants for active participation and distributed the certificates.

URAAN

The Women in Leadership Positions project, powered by OXFAM, has entered into its sunset phase titled URAAN. The program has been active since 2016 and has seen scholarship dispersion to 70 girls belonging to four villages located near Multan. This group of amazing girls went through an 8-day Soft/LifeSkills based training conducted by School of Leadership Foundation. The training covered a number of topic heads ranging from Interpersonal skills to Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship. The trainings were led by SOLF founder Shireen Naqvi.

Pakistan Literacy Project (PLP)

In January, the PLP team supervised the library renovation work of the 10 selected schools in Lahore and 3 in Bahawalpur for model libraries which is almost completed. As schools were closed due to the COVID-19 second wave, the PLP teams engaged with the community children with different storytelling and read aloud sessions led by coach-mentors and the community members. The project teams also celebrated the International Day of Education in both the districts.

Safe School Reopening Pilot (SRP)

The Safe School Reopening Pilot (SRP) project’s goal is ‘to create a fully-costed scalable pilot for safe and healthy school reopening aligned to the MoFE&PT priorities, community engagement and evidence based best practice’. During January, vigilance committees of schools, students and parents have been formed for the target schools and their training has also formally begun.

Facebook: We Think Digital

A Teacher Training was held under "We Think Digital - a Digital Literacy and Safety program by Facebook aimed at promoting Digital Literacy and developing Online Safety Resources/Tools to create a safe and efficient Digital Learning Environment for middle and high school students. Lahore district has completed its first phase of Training where 20 schools were on board and 60 teachers were trained.

Life Skills for Kids (LSK)

LSK celebrated the New Year 2021 in campuses where students presented greeting cards to their teachers and fellow students.

Staff assessment was conducted to build their capacities according to their interest level and emerging demands.

LSK students celebrated International Day of Education with speeches and poetry where they demanded reopening of schools and restoring educational activities.

The students also shared how to make face masks with available material. Meanwhile, the online sale of Ajrak facemasks by LSK Vocational Center continues successfully.

International Day of Education 2021

On January 25, 2021, ITA celebrated the International Day of Education. We\'ve seen many heroes of education and learning of all ages from the communities, homes, public and private sector who have risen to the #Covid19 challenge exhibiting resilience and new ideas. There is definitely a stirring towards \'Revitalization within the Recovery" mind set. Let\'s accelerate and invest our social, technological and financial capital in an extraordinary learning enterprise built on strong foundations to support lifelong learning.