Sindh Education Foundation; Expanding the Reachout to Marginalized Children in Sindh

KARACHI: Sindh Education Foundation, established through the Sindh Education Foundation Act 1992, is presently supporting a large segment of low cost private schools across the province through financial and technical assistance with a view to support education for a large segment of marginalized children across the province.

These schools are mainly located in the far flung areas of the province and cater to the need of the unserved communities in the most difficult areas. SEF’s portfolio presently comprises of 2029 schools. It is however in the process of significant expansion and by August 2016 the Foundation would be supporting over 4000 schools, from pre-primary to secondary level, under its different programs. Under Promoting Private Schools in Rural Sindh (PPRS) the schools will be1555 subsequent to Phase VI; under SEF Assisted Schools (SAS) these are expected to increase up to 1,000 schools. It is expected that approximately 45000 children will be enrolled by August 2016. The SEF Middle and High School Program (SMHSP) is also under process and contracts have been signed with 350 schools. The Foundation further plans to support a significant component of “Existing Low Cost Private Schools” with a view to extend regulatory framework to this particular set of schools.

Besides children of school going age, out-of-school children, SEF plans to offer a customized educational program for adolescent and adult population of the province. At present SEF is supporting 13 centers in Sehwan and suburbs of Karachi through its Women’s Literacy and Empowerment Program (WLEP) supporting 363 adult women learners and adding value to their lives. To extend educational facilities to working and street children, SEF is running a Child Development Center (CDC) in a relatively underdeveloped area of the Karachi where 330 children are served with the quality education. Besides promoting formal and non-formal education, SEF is also playing a vibrant and productive role in bringing qualitative reforms in the public education sector through 800 schools of Adopt A School Program (AASP) and 150 schools of Early Learning Program (ELP).

During 2016-17; SEF’s reach out is expected to expand to about 900,000 children across the province. In addition the Foundation plans to invest heavily in multiple interventions relating to quality for ensuring that minimum standards of education are maintained in the low cost private sector schools supported by the Foundation. For this the Foundation provides continuous professional development of teachers to help them to teach with sound content knowledge and refined pedagogy in the challenging environment of rural and sub-urban Sindh. The Foundation also provides free textbooks of Oxford University Press and Sindh Textbook Board along with quality learning material that are used in SEF schools and teachers are trained accordingly to impart quality education with full command over the syllabus. Now, these schools are also being upgraded with the most modern technological gadgets of Information and Communication Technology to give the children of the under-privileged communities a fighting chance to be able to compete in the modern world.

SEF schools are regularly monitored to provide evidence based feedback to school operators for improvement. Student assessment is a salient feature of the SEF programs through which an objective and transparent accountability system has been established in SEF schools. Independent student’s assessments are uninterruptedly held every year to gauge schools’ performance and monitor the quality of learning. The Foundation also strives to develop the capacities of its various stakeholders through seminars, discourses and advocacy campaigns by pursuing a holistic development approach.

SEF under the leadership of its Board of Directors and milestones laid down under the Government of Sindh’s Education Sector Plan, is pursuing an ambitious target of reaching out to a million children within next couple of years with a view to facilitate attainment of national and international targets relating to universal education and in compliance of national vision entailed under Article 25-A.  

Highlights of Some of the Major Initiatives

Promoting Private Schooling in Rural Sindh (PPRS) Program

Under the PPRS program supported under World Bank assistance under the SERP II; SEF has presently 847 schools across the province with an enrolment of 127,500 students. Under Phase VI of the program, the Foundation is expanding the outreach to an additional 200,000 out of school children in some of the most difficult and remote regions of the province.

SEF Assisted Schools (SAS)

The SAS portfolio comprises of the erstwhile Integrated Education Learning Program (IELP) and Rural Based Community Schooling (RBCS) Program. The IELP in turn had earlier evolved out of SEF’s traditional Community Based Schools and Fellowship Schools. SAS presently comprises of over 918 schools with an enrolment of 157,752 students across all districts in the province

SEF Middle and High Schools Program (SMHSP)

With the purpose to fill the gap in post-primary education in Sindh, SEF has initiated a dedicated intervention for strengthening the post primary schooling in Sindh. Under this intervention, the Foundation plans to enroll at least 45,000 students in 2016-17.

SEF’s Technical Support for Quality Improvements through Teacher Training and Student Assessments

 The Foundation’s Technical wing provides a continuous stream of teacher trainings to the teachers in all the partner schools through -out the school with a view to strengthen the teaching and learning environment.

Simultaneously there is a systematic Student Assessment undertaken periodically to gauge the quality audit of the schools. This in-fact is the basis of the Foundation’s accountability framework with partner schools.***