Education: More efforts needed for education of women: Aga Khan Education Services Pakistan

More efforts needed for education of women: AKESP

By Zainab Imam

KARACHI: A media workshop was conducted Thursday by the Aga Khan Education Service (AKESP) and the Aga Khan University- Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), in collaboration with the European Commission (EC).

AKESP CEO Sughra Chaudhry Khan introduced the organization which celebrated 100 years of operation last year when its first school, established in Gwadar in 1905, turned 100. “We focused on female education because that’s where we saw a gap-most of the government’s concentration was centered around male education. So we decided to compliment the government by making education accessible to the female population, which is an important segment of the country.”

Among the major programmes run by the AKESP is the Northern Pakistan Education Programme (NPEP). Funded by the EC, this programme was launched in the Northern Areas and Chitral (NAC) in 1997, with the purpose of making good quality education accessible and sustainable to the children, especially girls. The EC has pledged 20 million euros for the second phase of this programme.

One of the features of the NPEP is the self-help school construction programme (SHCP), which was implemented to improve physical access to education in the NAC and allow the whole community to participate in making educational sustainable. “We aim to train these people to a level where they can manage a proper school on their own. Over 850 seismic-resistant classrooms have been constructed to date, which has been instrumental in sustaining education in these areas. Due to the availability of these buildings, the enrolment ratio of students, especially for females, has increased significantly.”

A community school development programme was launched as part of the NPEP to develop a viable model of school financing and operations, using resources from within the community as well as external donors. This grant was provided not only to operate primary schools but also to upgrade primary and secondary schools; operate coaching centers at secondary school level and make computer centers.

“Our most favourable response so far has come for the female human resource development programme (FHRDP),” said Sughra. The FHRDP, which has trained 729 women to date, works to provide women in the NAC with opportunities to pursue higher education at the national level. The ultimate purpose of the programme is to increase the available number of qualified women to work in development activities. “At one time, the majority of our teachers and head-teachers belonged to the south, but with the advent of this programme, we can now proudly say that now our schools employ AKESP-trained teachers. One prime example is our school in Nagar where 28 teachers are the same girls who matriculated from that school years ago.”

“We introduced the language enhancement and achievement programme (LEAP) in which we changed our schools from Urdu-medium to English-medium. That posed another challenge because then we had to train teachers because there weren’t as many indigenous English-speaking people,” Sughra said. Therefore, the NPEP established a teacher development programme, which included courses in subject content, teaching methodology, initial training, English language, teacher-mentor scheme and re-entry programme for teachers. In coordination with field education offices (FEO), AKESP extends academic and management support to schools. The FEOs also help develop linkages with other development partners and manage a chain of all cadres of schools. NPEP also provides specialist training for teachers in areas such as early childhood education, physical education /sports, information and communication technology.

“We are involved in capacity development and strengthening linkages with the government, private, community-based, national and international education providers,” said Sughra, “the NPEP is also constantly in the process of research and evaluation to improve the professional and academic programmes that it operates.”

The AKESP has partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to introduce a programme called “Releasing confidence and creativity” (RCC), which is in its second phase. It is an early childhood development programme, operating in 27 government primary schools for girls in Hyderabad and Khairpur. The AKU-IED programme is another highly successful project of the AKESP through which teachers and head-teachers of the AKESP-operated schools can complete their Masters and Bachelors and also gain training in research and teaching methodologies. “The AKESD currently imparts education to 62000 children in 186 schools belonging to us and 200 community-based schools,” said Khan.

Khan stated that one of the major outcomes of their efforts was that there was an increased level of awareness in these areas with regards to female education. “People used to believe that female education was useless because they are just going to sit at home. Now, those very people are sending their daughters to school. But furthermore, there’s a direct effect of female education because our research shows that children of women who were educated by us, do their homework with more interest and enjoy going to school.”

Nasima, a product of the AKESP is currently doing her masters in education through AKU-IED. “At the time of my entrance, the school started under the shade of a tree. Then there were two rooms. I graduated with my matriculation from that school and then went on to do my FSc and BSc, and when I returned to my school, I was pleasantly surprised to see a very sophisticated building!”

Didar Panah, another AKU-IED scholar said, “I have been working with different projects for the AKESP, but never got the chance to continue my education after middle school before AKU-IED. I learnt a lot on-the-job, but the benefit of formal education is that we are learning how to learn and how to motivate others to learn.”

Sindh Education Minister, Dr Hamida Khuhro, was the chief guest. She appreciated the work of the AKESP and praised the leadership of the organisation for the fore-sightedness and the constant motivation of the people who worked for AKESP. “AKU’s seminars are always inspiring for me because of the remarkable level of commitment I see here, which is non-existent in most organisations. The government should learn from this organisation. I am totally impressed by the level of English they can produce!” She said that there’s now an environment of education in the country and people now believe that education is not just about getting employment, but is the agent of change.

Attending such seminars in a country plagued with illiteracy fills one with hope. More organisations like these, and Pakistan would be illuminated with the light of knowledge. The motivation, commitment and hard work that this organisation displays is indeed commendable and a model for all future organisations to follow.

Daily Times