e-Newsletter, July 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.

Global Education Summit 2021

The Global Education Summit 2021 By the Global Partnership for Education was held on 28-29 July to raise awareness on equal education for all.

Article for the Education Commission

ITA CEO Baela Raza Jamil wrote an article for the Education Commission named "Close Encountered with delivering Education: Is it adding up?"

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)

ASER 2021 - Measuring the Impact of Covid-19 on Education in Pakistan

ASER has conducted a study in 16 rural districts, reaching 9300+ households, and 25,000+ children aged 3 to 16 to measure the impact of Covid-19 on Education. The study is important to understand the way Covid-19 has impacted the country\'s progress on SDG 4.1. and Article 25A. The findings show statistically significant learning losses for overall primary level (class 1 to 5) in language and arithmetic skills. The Education chapter of Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2021 included a section on this survey\'s findings. Currently, abstracts are being sent to international conferences to share the findings with a global audience. A formal launch of the study is planned for the last week of August. Key messages have been prepared and the social media team is active in making the stakeholders aware of the impact of Covid-19 on Education in Pakistan.

ASER 2021 - Katchi Abadi Pilot Survey

The ASER Pakistan research team has mapped learning levels of Pakistani children to previously unexplored geographic zones - the Katchi Abadis (informal urban settlements) of Pakistan. In the first stage, a pilot has been conducted in Lahore, Karachi-West, Karachi-Korangi and Karachi-Malir. The findings show the triangulated influence of poor living conditions, lack of proper governmental support on facilities development, and low parental education and children\'s psycho-social wellbeing and learning outcomes. The report will be launched in the last week of August.

Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2021

ITA with support from UNESCO\'s GEM Report is drafting a country study, for their regional report that will map the non-state activity at different levels of education, and analyze policies and regulations on paper, and how state-non-state relations and activities function. The study aims to address the age-old question – what can and should be the role of non-state providers in education. For this purpose, after a comprehensive literature review, qualitative interviews are being conducted with Government officials, stakeholders in the private sector as well as academics and policy influencers. Based on the initial interviews, a draft has also been submitted.

Children’s Literature Festival

Digi Kutub Khanay

The Children’s Literary Festival is launching the Digi Kutab Khana in Hazara Community supported by Zoe bibi trust. The project aims to increase reading and storytelling habits of the northern, unaccessable areas of Pakistan.

Young Author Award

CLF has also raised $1350 for the Young Authors Awards from local and international community members. The Award supports youngsters interested in story, poetry and prose writing and provides them an opportunity to get their voices heard.

Mini CLFs

CLF is also collaborating with Phillip Morris International in their Learning with Safety and Fun centers to carry out trainings to conduct mini CLFs in Charsada, Mardan and Swabi.

Mountains shouldn’t be too high for tails
An article published by ITA in the news to highlight the issue of lack of books and book reading activity in the northern areas of Pakistan.

Siyani Sahelian

A Siyani Sahelian Marketplace was held in Bahawalpur which showcased products and services produced by TVET beneficiaries of the program. The event was an exposition of the products and services produced by the TVET beneficiaries of the program, after receiving a three-month skill development training. The marketplace had activated stalls set up with different themes, including Digital Learning, Beautician, Handicrafts, Gota Kinari, Machine and Hand Embroidery, Khussa Making, Chunri Making and Domestic Tailoring. The stalls showcased the significant art forms that have been prevalent in South Punjab with both local and nationwide market potential.

The marketplace event was attended by a diverse group of stakeholders from Bahawalpur, including industry, education sector, representatives from the government and other vocational training centers. The participants included Mr. Irfan Ahmad, Deputy Commissioner Bahawalpur, CEO Education Bahawalpur Mr. Zahoor Ahmad Chohan, Director Education Mr. Abdul Khaliq, UNICEF focal person in Rahim Yar Khan Ms. Rihanna Irum, industrialist Mr. Aamir Shahzad and IBA Rahim Yar Khan Principal Mr. Sambal Shaheem. The event was also attended my industrialist including President Chamber of Commerce Mr. Tanveer Mahmood, Senior Vice President Mr. Ghulam Fareed, Vice President Mr. M. Muneeb Malik, Secretary General Syed Abeer Haider.

Siyani Sahelian training on 21st Century skills for World Skills Day

Creating Spaces

Under Creating Spaces project, ITA in collaboration with Oxfam in Pakistan (OIP) and Punjab Women Protection Authority (PWPA) planned and conducted two days training workshop in Rawalpindi on gender awareness raising and positive norm modeling for service providers. Different departments from Rawalpindi and Islamabad participated in the training, including Social Welfare Department, Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, Punjab Complaint Cell, Education Department, Police Department, Traffic Police, coordinators of PWPA, HRCP, APP, NCSW, Bait-ul-mal and Ministry of Human Rights. The training was conducted by renowned consultant Ms. Nayyab Ali. Training was attended by Mr. Ali Syed Shahnawaz, country head OIP, and certificates were distributed by Ms. Isma, Project Manager, CS, OIP.

Safe Schools Reopening Pilot

Active follow-up of interventions continued during July 2021. SRP teams monitored & did mentorship of schools for utilization of preventive and protective equipment. Meetings were held with School Vigilance committee members to review the progress against mitigation action plan. The VC members discussed the strategies to ensure that staff are ready to comply with SOPs for new academic session. Technological optimization trainings were organized in four schools. Nine Parents’ vigilance, 11 School vigilance and 11 Student vigilance committees were followed up for compliance with COVID-19 SOPs and downloading of Sehat Kahani app.


Downloading SK App-PVC member	SVC members with after SMAP review-IMSG Kuri

SRP collaborated with the talented Yoga instructor Miss Meena Gabeena for giving online yoga trainings to SRP schools staff.

Safe Internet and School Outreach Program

The Telenor Safe Internet and School Outreach Program has the aim of teaching students about the dangers of the internet and how to stay Digitally Safe and Resilient. The program saw a flood of training sessions being conducted in Punjab in the past 3 months with more than 20,000 students having successfully received our sessions. The total students and teachers trained all over Pakistan till date are 127,781 students and 3028 teachers from 701 schools.

SISOP collaboration with Roots Millennium Islamabad schools

We Think Digital

The We Think Digital program by Facebook entered its 3rd phase of the project and aims to reach 57600 students, 2160 teachers and 720 schools. Out of these, total students trained are 42815, total teachers trained are 1724 and total schools on-boarded are 598 till date. Facebook is conducting this nationwide training to fulfill its role as a responsible social media enterprise. It is currently in the Teacher training phase and provides teachers with the opportunity to earn a Facebook training certificate.

We Think digital started two campaigns in July including the We Think Digital statistics and Did you know series. The series are aimed at showing the work the trainers have done all over Pakistan and to give key insights of the project to all which may help them improve their data privacy and security.

Life Skills for Kids

LSK schools are conducting regular classes in summer camps with curricular and extracurricular activities. A session was organized on digital safety for LSK teachers & students to orientate them on how to be vigilant being digital citizens. 5 days of Teacher\'s training was organized on "Subject-based Learning" under Accelerated Learning program and in accordance to Single National Curriculm. ITA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Center for collaboration in Technical courses and job placement of LSK students. This month LSK students also visited National History Museum to attend the inauguration of the literature exhibit. Bi-annual refresher session on "Fire & Safety" was also organized for LSK staff including support staff and security guards.

WSIP - ECE

SMC Meeting and School Improvement Plan(SIP) Sessions with SMC Members and Community at Karachi Adopted Schools

The School Management Committee (SMC) meeting for the annual year of 2021-22 was arranged in Karachi Adopted School GGSS Junior Model # 1 School P.E.C.H.S with an agenda to discuss previous academic year achievements and discuss current challenges. The session was focused to discuss how to utilize the SMC fund and further develop the SIP focused on the common challenges and issues shared by all SMC members. The further sessions with parents are also planned by SMC members to promote community involvement and ownership towards schools.

Annual Result Day Celebration across ITA Aagahi Schools - Sindh

The Annual Result Day were held across ITA Aagahi Schools in Sindh to celebrate students achievements and work throughout the year which has been tough and challenging to continue studies due to repeated school closures. Students received results and goodie bags on their achievements during the year. Parents were also specially appreciated for the efforts they have put during the school closure time to engage students at home in activities guided by teachers through digital platforms. Parents also appreciated the efforts of ITA and school teachers.

Formation of Village Education Committee (VEC) for Community Development and School Improvement Plan for next academic session

The mother-child interaction, parents involvement and community engagement was pushed to another level due to Covid-19 and repeated school closure. To make the community and parents involvement more organized and to encourage good efforts of parents ITA initiated to form the Village Education Committees in the school. The (VEC) meetings were held in 14 schools in Sindh with an agenda to discuss their positive engagement for school activities. In VEC discussion on enrollment drives, mother-child interaction, School Improvement Plan were the few focus agenda.

Eid Celebration and Activities at School

Students of ITA Aagahi School System Celebrated Eid Ul Azha with compassion and enthusiasm. Teachers arranged activities like role play, storytelling and learning activities for students of all grade level

Session on Child Safeguarding Policy

ITA organized an awareness session for its employees and the LSK staff on "Child Safeguarding Policy". Many important things were highlighted during the session like who is child, what are their needs and challenges they faced. The complaint mechanism was also discussed and guided in detail on how committee members can be approached. The communication guidelines to display the Child Safeguarding Policy at all of ITA offices were also discussed.