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| GEM Report 2020 Pakistan Launch |
| Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) organized and co-hosted the national virtual launch of the 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report on inclusion and education, All means ALL, along with Ministry for Federal Education and Professional Training, UNESCO Pakistan and Department for International Development (DFID) on July 28, 2020. Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood joined as chief guest. |
 The online event featured an interactive
high-level panel that discussed the key messages and recommendations in the report. UNESCO Pakistan Country Representative Patricia McPhillips, DFID Pakistan Head Annabel Gerry, GEM Report Senior Analyst Anna Cristina D'Addio, Planning Commission of Pakistan’s Member Social Sector Dr. Shabnum Sarfraz, Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS) Director and LUMS School of Education Interim Dean Dr. Faisal Bari, and Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP) Executive Director Muhammad Atif Sheikh participated in the panel discussion which was moderated by ITA CEO Baela Raza Jamil. The event proceedings were simultaneously translated into Pakistan Sign Language as well to ensure inclusion. |
| ITA hosts webinar on COVID-19 and Learning Losses |
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 ITA hosted a webinar titled "Learning Crisis in
COVID-19 and Learning Losses" on July 17, 2020.
As the education system has been severely impacted by COVID-19 and the crisis offers an important reflection point for education leaders, the webinar brought together the thought-leaders and practitioners to discuss the options available for the education of ALL children and share the practices which are most relevant in the context of developing countries in general and Pakistan in particular.
The panelists included Koen M. Geven (Economist South Asia Region, World Bank), Jonathan Stern, (Senior Education Research & Evaluation Specialist, RTI International), Kate Anderson (Global Education Strategist, Anderson Education Associates), Dr. Faisal Bari (Director, IDEAS & Interim Dean, LUMS School of Education), and Dr. Shehzad Jeeva (Director Examination Board, Aga Khan University). The webinar was moderated by Baela Raza Jamil (CEO, ITA).
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| Action Points for School Reopening |
 As the government considers reopening schools amidst COVID-19, here are the three Principles and five Pillars and Action Points for school reopening proposed by ITA. Let's ensure safe reopening of schools for our children! |
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ITA and ASER Pakistan, being proud partners of People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network, participated in the global e-launch of the International Common Assessment of Numeracy (ICAN) report on July 9, 2020. The report was launched virtually by Dr. Silvia Montoya, Director UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The launch event also saw a panel discussion with Dr. Montoya; Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO Pratham Education Foundation, India; Dr. James Otieno Jowi, Principal Education Officer, East African Community; Dr. Sylvia Schmelkes, Academic Vice-President, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico; and Mr. Boureima Allaye Toure, Chairperson National Council of Civil Society Organizations, Mali which was moderated by Ms. Baela Raza Jamil, CEO ITA. |
 ICAN was developed through a collaborative effort between PAL Network member organizations in 13 low and middle-income countries across Africa, America, and Asia. ASER Pakistan, with support from its global South-South Alliance, the PAL Network, tested the common set of numeracy items under ICAN in Toba Tek Singh district of Punjab. https://palnetwork.org/ican/ |
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| Children's Literature Festival |
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 CLF held a virtual ceremony to acknowledge seven extraordinary winners of the Young Author Award (YAA) 2019-20 on, July 23, 2020. CLF, a flagship program of ITA, initiated the first YAA in 2019 supported by Open Society Foundations (OSF). The award served as a positive platform for young writers in Pakistan of 10-18 years of age to showcase their creativity and critical thinking.
The virtual ceremony, held on zoom, was attended by children from all across Pakistan along with renowned jury members and special guests. Pakistan’s luminaries, the scholar and historian Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra and poet Amjad Aslam Amjad, both CLF Goodwill Ambassadors participated as the Chief Guests and distributed awards among the winners of both the categories.
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| Storytelling videos by CLF-ITA productions are also regularly being created and uploaded on YouTube channel and social media. CLF is also teaching arts and crafts activities to children through short, interactive videos.
Storytelling and Activities Link: http://itacec.org/Storytelling or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBg3Z2La2OiFj9o04szJ7eQ
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| Campaign to End Child Domestic Labour runs across Pakistan |
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The campaign to End Child Domestic Labour (CDL) #EndCDL, a children-led nationwide campaign initiated by ITA in collaboration with many child rights organizations and individuals, is successfully running across Pakistan. The campaign comprises four major interconnected sub-groups of Legislation, Posters, Advocacy Letters and Social Media that deal with different aspects to ensure change from bottom to top. Every group has dedicated mentors and assistants who conduct sessions with the child champions and motivate them to actively contribute to the cause.
http://itacec.org/Campaign-to-End-Child-Domestic-Labor
The legislation group, mentored by Lawyers and Child Rights Activists Syed Miqdad Naqvi, Amjad Nazeer and Nuria Iqbal, held an online capacity building session with 85 child champions.
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The Poster Group, mentored by writer and illustrator Maria Riaz, is helping the children generate key messages for #EndCDL |
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Child champions participated in a video-making workshop by renowned filmmaker Samar Minallah. They are learning to make their own videos to advocate against Child Domestic Labour. |
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| Life Skills for Kids (LSK) |
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 LSK is an initiative of ITA, Stora Enso and Bulleh Shah Packaging to provide life skill based education to the children aged 5-15 who are intensely involved in rag picking. These children went from trash picking to getting education and vocational skills with the help of ITA.
LSK students are actively participating as Child Champions in the National Campaign to #EndCDL in Pakistan.
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Expression through Art
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Learning Never Stops
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ITA continues to offering service delivery amid COVID-19 across multiple platforms with online learning, art, creativity, storytelling, and many other activities for children. Making sure children make the most of their time while schools are closed so that Learning Never Stops. http://itacec.org/ita-COVID19-solutions
ITA has developed a series of instructions on Bingo Cards for students of up to class 5. Our team shares these instructions with students and parents daily, and children give some great responses.
Learning Prompt: Children learn the names of five Pakistani rivers by making their drawings. |
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Learning continues at Sanjha Verha
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PEIMA/PEF students in Sanjha Verha safe space in Rahim Yar Khan perform learning prompt and make these houses.
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ITA’s Siyani Sahelian programme is giving a second chance to out of school adolescent girls (and boys) to complete primary, middle and secondary education along with tech-enabled learning, life skills and vocational skills.
From dropping out to topping in her class and dreaming to become pilot: Meet Aqsa Bibi from Ditto Wala, Muzaffargarh District, Punjab. #LeaveNoGirlBehind
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On World Youth Skills Day, ITA kicked off Siyani Sahelian TVET strand. With social distancing measures in place, Siyani Sahelian conducted skill development workshops in 15 villages, workshops in three hubs, and introduced new trades like Poultry Farming, Kitchen Gardening, Khussa Making, Fabric Painting, Gota Kinari and others. |
 The transition from skill development to enterprise development is important. To help Siyani Sahelian beneficiaries take that leap, ITA has introduced the Siyani Sahelian Nesting Program. This is a six-week entrepreneurial boot camp to help them monetize their skill sets. |
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 ITA’s Creating Spaces project aims to reduce Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Child, Early and Forced Marriages (CEFM) by actively engaging and supporting community actors to promote positive gender norms and by supporting women and girls who have experienced violence.
Under the project, an online meeting with 9 respective districts of Creating Spaces was called to reform and organize "Creating Spaces Alliance" for the effective execution of activities in field to reduce VAWG & CEFM.
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ITA participated in an insightful discussion on "Gendered Impacts on Pandemic and Introduction to Oxfam Feminist Principles" by Oxfam in Pakistan to evaluate the nationwide followed Rapid Response from gender perspective. In the three-day training under the name "Gender in emergencies (toolkit) and Gender, Power and Inequalities", the Oxfam Gender toolkit was discussed that helps in creating and maintaining gender equality in the working sector.
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 ITA in collaboration with Oxfam in Pakistan distributed hygiene kits among women leaders in three districts of Sindh, including Umerkot, Shahdadkot and Shaheed Benazirabad. |
| Safe Internet and School Outreach Program (SIOSP) |
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 ITA, in partnership with Telenor Pakistan, is organizing an internationally recognized 1-hour training/orientation sessions on “Safe Internet Program” for the middle and high school students (between 9-15 years of age) and teachers across Pakistan. These trainings aim to educate the children of Pakistan on the safe use of internet and is provided free of cost. Several chains like Roots Millennium, Roots International, Beaconhouse School System, Headstart Schools, Westminster, Dar-e-Arkam, Allied Schools, Khadunia High School, OPF, Supernova School, Trust Schools, SOS, Bazeecha Trust and many more have joined us on this program, enabling us to train over 45,000 students and 1700 teachers across all provinces of Pakistan within 2 months’ period.
Since it was not possible to conduct physical trainings in classrooms due to COVID-19, SIOSP teams adopted a digital/online approach with the aim of conducting training sessions as part of online/virtual classrooms at schools. These include using online mediums like Zoom, MS Teams, Google Hangout, Elaborate Google Forms, Whatsapp Groups and other platforms that support mass online delivery.
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