e-Newsletter, January 2023
 

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
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.

ASER Pakistan

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
ITA in collaboration with PAL Network collected data for the ICAN 2022 assessment in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab to assess the learning losses following Covid-19.

For the Flood Recovery Program in collaboration with FCDO, analysis of village census data in shikarpur and Ghotki, Sindh was completed. Baseline assessments for the Flood Recovery Program were also conducted, allowing the program to enroll students in accelerated learning camps.
 

ITA Interventions

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

2023 brings Smiles, Hopes and Access to Quality Learning Recovery in the Flood-Effected districts of Ghotki and Shikarpur!

January 2023 was a month of smiles and happiness in the flood-affected areas of Ghotki and Shikarpur as ITA began the roll-out of Intervention I  “Back-to-school and School stabilization kits’ in the 391 schools selected and verified by SELD and ITA and Intervention II ’55-65 days Learning Recovery Camps”. 
The “Recovery for Foundational Learning; Flood response 2022” Interventions I & II are concurrently in full swing of implementation, providing relief to children, teachers and families. Education and Learning are a fundamental entitlement for children linked to multiple capabilities including lifelong learning, health, nutrition, economic opportunities, gender equality and poverty reduction.
Intervention I: Distribution of Back-to-School and School Stabilization Kits!
The children were delighted to receive new bags, uniforms, stationery, exercise books (3), lunch box (40,000 students) and dignity kits for adolescent girls (8000).  ITA in collaboration with SELD and support of FCDO, began distributing Back to school and School Stablisation kits. The latter include: Teaching learning Materials(TLMs)-from ECE to Grade 8, mini libraries of levelled books in Sindhi, sports kits, health and hygiene/First Aid kits for 391 schools of Ghotki and Shikarpur. The good news is that the number of schools for TLMs will reach more than 700 flood affected schools as per SELD and SEF lists. 

Intervention II:
Hiring Teachers for Teaching at the Right Level (TARL)/Chalo Parho Barho (CPB) Camps!
ITA conducted tests and interviews for hiring Para teachers to run the Learning Recovery Camps for teaching at the right level (TARL) an intervention spanning 55-65 days, for addressing foundational literacy and numeracy. The Camps will reach 30,000 in-school children at risk and out of school children (drop-outs & never enrolled) ages 6-13 years in the Ghotki and Shikarpur districts. The communities are excited about the intervention for learning in their villages and neighbourhood.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
 

Week-long Teacher Training in Ghotki and Shikarpur!
A comprehensive five-day teacher training workshop was held simultaneously for TARL/ Chalo-Parho-Barho (CPB) camps.  95 para teachers/volunteers were trained by ITA-Senior Manager Academics Fida Hussain and Training Coordinators the Learning Recovery of children to mitigate learning losses through the Combined Action for Maximized (CAMAL) methodology- embedded in regular assessments to track learning outcomes.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Baselines Assessment for Children in CBP/TARL Camps!

The Para teachers conducted the baseline survey of the first cohort of 3200 students that have been enrolled in the Learning Recovery Camps.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

The Roll out of TARL - Chalo-Parho-Barho Camps in the Two Districts

90 Learning Recovery CAMPS of cohort have been rolled out in January 2023 to address foundational literacy and numeracy with social emotional skills brimming with stories and play based learning for 30,000 in-school children at risk and out-of-school children (drop-outs & never enrolled) ages 6-13 years in the districts Ghotki and Shikarpur. We sincerely hope this will lead to new conceptions and practices for positive learning practices.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Intervention III: All Children Learning - Every Child Counts and Every Child Matters
In both villages of Mahmoud Panhwar (Shikarpur) and Moomal Ji Mari (Ghotki) the full Household Data of every HH with 3-16 year old children has been collected.

The Learning Crisis in the Spotlight for Moomal Ji Mari – A huge effort needed!
The analysis of Moomal ji Mari depicts the twin challenge of too many out of school children  (30%) and poor learning levels (grade 2 competencies); for both indicators girls lag behind boys. There is an urgency live up to the promise of Every Child Learning through system level reforms and multiple learning camps and 100% enrolment in the village. The recovery and renewal of education in Moomal Ji Mari will require a collective and sustained effort  by all the key stakeholders.

 

Digital Literacy and Advocacy through social media - ITA Initiative

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
Idara e Taleem o Aagahi (ITA) provides exemplary services in the field of education. Keeping in mind the importance of Digital Safety and Literacy, ITA has taken a new initiative to educate the youth with digital safety and literacy skills. An enhanced version of Digital Safety and Literacy includes Digital Literacy and Advocacy, which empowers the youth to learn and implement advocacy campaigns. The purpose of this initiative is not just to provide the skill set but also to build up the skill set and see through its implementation. The Digital literacy and Advocacy module includes the very important elements such as Digital Safety, Literacy, Data, social media and its usage and a skillset to design and develop social media content using CANVA - a digital platform to design.

ITA has a very concerning client list which focuses on digital literacy. These clients are Telenor, META and now British Council. British Council as a client has availed the services of ITA to train its Volunteers on Digital Literacy and Advocacy through social media. ITA delivered a three days training and had a successful review of 9/10.

This initiative and the trainings under it are very compatible as to what is needed in this era and ITA will always be on the forefront to produce and deliver quality content in all aspects of education.
 

Digital Literacy and Advocacy through social media - ITA Initiative

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

ITA in collaboration with Meta, is providing the youth of Gilgit Baltistan with specialized sensitization trainings on online hazards and digital safety measures to meet the unmet digital citizenship needs across the 10 districts of Gilgit Baltistan.

Currently ongoing, the We Think Digital Phase 6 has trained 31742 students, 193 teachers and 90 schools across GB. Under this phase program approach also includes community trainings along with teachers training to increase the diversity of the community group who are informed about the content, impact, and scope of the initiative.

 

South-South Fellowship Programme

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

The South-South Programme is an initiative under ‘What Works Hub” that aims to provide a platform for education leaders from the Global South as Fellows of powerful cross-sectoral coalitions to exchange evidence and  best practices for improving foundational learning.
The Pakistani Cohort has set the objective of their coalition as
All children from Pakistan  achieving foundational learning by the end of grade 3.
For this, they have demarcared some prototype territories where the pilot will be launched and the coalition is focusing on 5 clusters/UCs of 1 village each, in 4 provinces;

    1. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Sadri Jadid (Swabi);
    2. Sindh: Moomal Ji Maari (Ghotki); Mahmoud Panhwar (Shikarpur)flood affected
    3. Punjab: Ali Pur Shumali (Muzaffargarh);
    4. Balochistan: Killi Yar Muhammad (Khuzdar)

The main startegies on which the coalition will be focused on within each cluster will be;

    1. Establish local village councils/cluster for localization;
    2. Baselines- Evaluate gaps in foundation learning;
    3. Leadership Trainings for Headteachers/Teachers  & village councils;
    4. Foundational learning recovery interventions/TARL and others 
    5. Demonstrate & advocate for system-based reforms and financing 
    6. Local, national, and international learning collaborative.

The coalition is structuring an innovative type of distributive governance through village councils. The village councils are local groups formed to support  ‘All Children Learning Laboratory’ in each of the village clusters across districts/provinces
The key ojectives of these village councils/local gorups is;

    1. To develop evidence based FL (Literacy & Numeracy) interventions;
    2. To ensure that interventions build vision and capacity within local contexts; and
    3. To create sustainable governance arrangements (demand/supply side)

      The members of these village councils/local groups will be Influencers, elders, CBOs, youth volunteers headteachers, teachers, reps SMCs/PTSMCs/PTCs, SCs and officials. The structure of the councils as units will be formed by the Fellows present in the government side. The formation of the councils to ensure local ownership, legitimacy, authority and sustainability of the initiative and its targets
      Of course, it will begin through conducting the village baseline assessment to ensure evidence on the gaps on foundation learning

      1. Survey /tools approved by govts. is focused on:
        1. ASER HH & FLN assessment (grade 2  tool)
        2. Household sócio-economic profile

      The current status of the village clusters is;

        1. Village/learning profiles collected from 4 locations 100% HHs
        2. Data Analysis completed of Moomal Ji Maari, Mahmoud Panwar and Ali Pur Shumali- Sadri Jadeed in process; Killi Yar Mohd (TBC)

      Once the basic surveys are delivered, the task of the Fellows will be to develop a training module/toolkit on leadership & FL-Pedagogies for:

          • the local Village Councils, local level action
          • head-teachers and teachers for engagement with department/local officers/District Officers/ local government
          • Nuts and bolts of Foundational Learning and Literacy, routines. regular assessments-for public accountability 
          • Conducting training sessions and implementation
 

Pakistan Literacy Project (PLP)

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

 

Room to Read Adapted Titles Dissemination across Pakistan.
170,000+ books in Urdu, Pashto, Dari and Sindhi have been distributed to government schools and NGOs schools across different areas in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

 

Orientation on Library Management and Library Period in Public and Private schools
Pakistan Literacy project (PLP) along with Room to Read (RtR) provides extensive series of workshops on Library Period and Library Management to their partner schools. In order to support and encourage principals and teachers to conduct reading activities to enhance reading habit among children, the PLP team has started a 2 day orientation session to public and private schools on Library Period and Library Management.
The first series of workshop was conducted in Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and Rajanpur by the Bahawalpur District team after the distribution of the adapted books in 70 government schools in each district. In these sessions the District Education Authorities also participated.

 

Learning through Harmonies - Gain aur Seekhain

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

"Learning through Harmonies- Gain aur Seekhain" Learning Through Harmonies - Gain Aur Seekhain to promote SEL and foundational learning among school-going kids - a session was conducted by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi with the students of Muslim League Govt. High School Empress Road, Lahore on the song 'Sarbuland' produced/ recorded by Asain Development Bank.
Link to the app: https://pakistanlearningfestival.com/apks/plf.apk 

 

Kitab Gari

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

The Origami session was held at Children Library Complex on 17 Jan, 2023. Children enjoyed the fun of paper folding into a dinosaur

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

The Kitab Gari session was held at the Children Library Complex on 18 January, 2023. Children enjoyed the amazing storytelling session.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
 

Young Author Awards (YAA)

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Young Author Award (2021-2022)  Mini prize distribution ceremony was held at ITA office Islamabad on 11 Jan, 2023. Maheen Fatima, Saad Hussain and Emaad Sohail received their cheques and prizes from Deputy Director Communication and Marketing ITA Mr. Waqas Bajwa

 

International Day of Education

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Celebrating the International Day of Education 2023 in Ghotki and Shikarpur!
There were good reasons to celebrate the International Day for Education 2023 in the flood-affected schools of Ghotki and Shikarpur Sindh. The children made posters and banners to mark the occasion to underscore the right of every child to access Quality and meaningful education.
 Our hope for 2023 is for every child to return to the classroom, where they belong.

 

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Your generosity Counts and Multiplies. Make your donations work for children and families. You have many options to donate for. Visit our website: https://itacec.org/donations
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
 
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