MY JOURNEY IN EDUCATION REFORM
https://www.dawn.com/news/1450245/my…ucation-reform
Some bits from the article:
*When I started my charitable organisation Zindagi Trust (ZT) in 2003, being part of this same creative ‘civil society with the innovative’ mindset, I also came up with an innovative idea to reform the education sector, in particular the issue of out-of-school children. Under the ?I Am Paid To Learn? (IMPTL) non-formal education programme, we started paying the working/street children to come to small units/schools that we established in three cities. This was set up with the presumption that it would be a strong incentive for working kids to come to school when they are compensated for the earnings they lose at their workplaces by attending schools. This payment was made to the children only when they attended classes and parents could thereby keep a check on their children?s attendance that day.
By 2005, there were 3,000 working children enrolled in this programme.*
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In the process of working on FJGS I learnt that there could be two approaches to turn around a government school. The first was to introduce just cosmetic quick-fixes, like providing some books and training some teachers, luring them with samosas and chai on the menu. The second was a clean-up operation with zero tolerance for everything that didn?t fit into what a good school should be. I soon realised that turning around one government school was like turning around all of Pakistan on a small scale; it involved dealing with the land mafia who often use religion and patriotism to encroach on land, and to deal with corrupt, irregular and even ghost staff.
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When I investigated further, I found, to my surprise, that there were 3,000 schools in Karachi but only 900 campuses. So, in these 900 campuses, there were 3,000 principals. It was an administrative mess.
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We went back and concentrated just on FJGS. One of the more remarkable things we were able to implement there was the teaching of Life Skills Based Education (LSBE). Based on a curriculum developed by the NGO Aahang, LSBE has a strong component on how children can save themselves from sexual abuse. This was a bold step as even private schools then were hesitant to implement this curriculum. But we were ready to convert the government school into an institution and catalyst for change.