Life cycle
2014 to 2021
Country/Region
Pakistan
Client/Partner
Educate A Child, Education Above All (EAA) Qatar, Children’s Global Network Pakistan, School of Leadership Foundation, and LMKT
Vision
The ILMPOSSIBLE: Take a Child to School programme focuses on building links and partnerships between communities and provincial governments to develop a network of support for out-of-school girls and boys across the country. This initiative aims to increase the enrolment and retention of out of school children.
Situation
Pakistan has over 22 million children who are out of school and it ranks second to Nigeria in terms of the ratio of Out of School Children. The situation for girls between the ages of 5 to 16 years is much worse than that for boys exacerbated by both supply and demand side challenges. The programme focuses on building links and partnerships between communities and provincial governments to develop a network of support for out-of-school girls and boys across the country.
Implementation
The programme engaged civil society partners and over 30,000 trained youth volunteers across the four provinces to address negative social norms, gender barriers and attitudes towards girls’ education including harmful practices such as early forced marriages. The programme also built the capacity of teachers, facilitators, youth volunteers and coaches to deliver life skills, education and sports as part of the curriculum, to make education more relevant and enjoyable for both girls and boys. Inclusive community support forums were formed, trained and strengthened to establish linkages with local authorities and education departments, and to address supply side issues related to lack of amenities such as boundary walls, toilets and water filters in schools that create barriers to access and participation for girls.
Impact
There was a great deal of mainstream and social media coverage which showcased the work of Take a Child to School in enrolling Out of School Children across Pakistan. It is evident that the programme has exceeded its numeric targets, however, the model has also achieved significant results beyond these statistics creating champions for education across communities that actively support enrolment and education advocacy activities in collaboration with relevant government departments even beyond the funded life of the programme.
The next phase of the programme currently under development will work on enrolling and supporting an additional 200,000 girls and boys into community led learning spaces providing an opportunity to those who have missed out of initial primary years to develop foundational skills that will enable them to mainstream into secondary or alternative education pathways. A special emphasis will be on engaging and training community teachers and learning facilitators for improving literacy, raising awareness on climate change and the need for adaption along with delivering inclusive education and improving the learning attainment of all students
Mutual benefit
During the programme, several national level education conferences were held to showcase the collective work of partners across Pakistan and garner more support for the cause of education from provincial and federal ministers. A noteworthy mention is the ILM SUMMIT 2019 – a national education conference attended by 450 participants from across the 65 districts inaugurated by His Excellency Dr Arif Alvi, The President of Pakistan. The British High Commissioner, Speaker National Assembly, provincial education ministers and other MNAs and MPAs also attended the event.
The UK has been a strong partner and supporter of education reform over the past decade in Pakistan. The ILMPOSSIBLE Programme worked to compliment these large-scale technical initiatives and closely aligns with the UK international development agenda that focuses on ensuring 12 years of education for girls and a commitment to strengthening foundational skills including literacy and numeracy for all young learners.