This week You! takes a look at a 13-month project in Punjab, especially for young girls, which aims at making government schools child-friendly...
This week You! takes a look at a 13-month project in Punjab, especially for young girls, which aims at making government schools child-friendly...
It is early in the morning in the outskirts of the historic Multan district in Southern Punjab. One can see a bunch of young girls clad in their school uniforms and walking at a brisk pace towards a common destination - their school. They are fresh and cheerful and hardly show any sign of worry on their faces. For a moment, one thinks they are off to a picnic or family function. Their level of interest is such that no one can imagine they are going to school, and that too a government one.
This is not a common sight. The general perception about children going to a government school is that they don’t take interest in their studies. The absence of basic facilities, age-old teaching methods and rote learning pushes the students away. They are afraid of facing their teachers who tend to be harsh most of the times. All this leads children to miss their classes and ultimately quit schools. The scenario is even worse when it comes to young girls. Their families consider education a waste of time and want them to stay home and contribute to household chores.
This situation is quite discouraging and puts a question mark on the government’s performance. According to Article 25-A of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of ages 5 to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law.” In addition to this constitutional requirement, the government of Pakistan also stands as a signatory to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under which Goal 2 pertains to achieving universal primary education. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s progress on both these fronts is unsatisfactory. While the MDGs matured in 2015, country’s literacy rate at 58 per cent remains considerably behind the MDG target of 88 per cent with closer inspection revealing large gender and rural/urban disparities.
In 2015, Pakistan signed ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) which is a 15-year agenda encompassing quality education as its 4th goal. It aims at ‘ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all’.
So, against this backdrop the question arises as to why young girls mentioned above are so enthusiastic about attending school that too in such a grim situation? Basically, these girls are beneficiaries of an intervention made at selective government schools under a public-private partnership to make the school’s environment conducive for learning and also child-friendly.
The said project is called ‘My School, My Friend’ that focuses on imparting quality education through child-friendly government schools in rural areas of Multan district. The National Initiative for Marginalized Segments (NIMS) Foundation is executing it with the help of a grant won under the ‘Let Girls Learn’ (LGL) Project of USAID’s Small Grants and Ambassador’s Fund Programme (SGAFP), after a competitive selection process. The applicants were asked to come up with innovative proposals and preference was given to those which were pragmatic and sustainable.
According to Amna Hashmi, Chief Executive, NIMS, up till now the organisation has been concentrating its efforts on Southern and Central Punjab. “The aim is to empower destitute individuals and underprivileged communities of the society by using best possible techniques and resources through collective and focused efforts. Under the initiative under discussion, the foundation has focused on making learning environment conducive in 6 Government Middle Schools (2 for boys and 4 for girls) and 4 Government High Schools (all for girls) in 3 Union Councils (UCs) of District Multan,” shares Hashmi.
When asked how this transformation has been made possible in an area where the situation of government schools is not at all satisfactory Amna informs, “The organization has tried to achieve this objective by providing missing facilities and introducing certain activities that were hardly heard of in the past. These activities include decorating schools through animated wall paintings, colourful posters and plantation campaigns. Moreover, inter-school competitions, building of professional capacity of teachers, rejuvenating School Councils (SCs) and conducting media campaign through radio, theatre performances and display of streamers have been incorporated. By getting engaged in these activities, the children and teachers can develop their self-confidence and enjoy learning as well.”
Regarding the enrolments of young girls in schools, Amna says, “Even though the government has launched a campaign for new enrolment and retention of students in schools in rural areas, when it comes to girls, the enrolment is still very low. One major reason for this is that the government schools do not provide a conducive learning environment for the students and are not child-friendly enough.”
The fact is; everyone is aware that essential facilities are missing in government schools and corporal punishment is a common practice there. Teachers are not trained when it comes to child centred education. Healthy activities and competitions do not form part of the school schedule. School Councils are either non-existent or dormant and the community at large is least bothered about the educational institutions. It is therefore a matter of no surprise that the given situation leads to nothing but low retention rates and high dropout levels.
According to Small Grants and Ambassador’s Fund Programme’s field operations officer, Khizer Gilani, “These government schools were selected to show the policymakers that by simply making them child-friendly and introducing modern learning techniques, the students can be attracted to them and enjoy the overall learning experience. The intention was to set up an example to be followed and replicated by the government in other parts of the province as well.”
“These schools were chosen after consulting with the District Education Office (DEO) Multan and the criteria was that these schools should be functional, should have high dropout ratio, were in need of facilities such as furniture, classroom equipment etc and have not been the recipient of assistance from any other organization in the past. Multan’s rural areas were especially targeted as it is a region where the number of children enrolled in schools is quite low. The Annual Status of Education Report 2015 (ASER) pointed out that 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the children in the age bracket of 6 to 16 years were out of school. Moreover, according to the same report, government schools enrolled only 49 per cent to 56 per cent of the children aged between 11 and 16 years,” adds Gilani.
Regarding the initiatives that evoked the most interest among students, Gilani says, “Animated wall paintings and plantation campaigns piqued student’s interests who were not familiar with such healthy and creative activities before. Animations drawn at schools were based on different themes including: Geography maps e.g. Maps of different provinces of Pakistan; Islamic historical maps e.g. map of Arab before and after the advent of Islam; Mathematics formulas and historical facts about Muslim and non-Muslim mathematicians; Proverbs and poetry from approved English and Urdu text books taught in middle and high schools; and Science diagrams e.g. Circulatory System, Respiratory System, etc. Basically, the plan was that in each school an area covering 500 square feet will be utilized for this purpose.”
Moreover, to stress on girls’ education and promote the project, a month long radio campaign, featuring 60-second long advertisements, were aired on a channel having maximum listenership. At the same time streamers were displayed on roads and in marketplaces with the aim to reiterate the importance of girl’s education in the targeted communities and help bring a positive change in the status quo. “The efforts paid off and the retention and enrolment increased reasonably. And the best thing is that the government has appreciated it and expressed its willingness to adopt this model. This way the project spread over 13 months will not end after its completion; instead it will have a much larger reach due to government’s ownership,” enthuses Gilani.
Mirza Kashif Ali, President, Pakistan Private Schools Owners’ Association (PPSA), appreciates the concept and says, “It is a good development that someone has thought of introducing modern means of learning in government schools. In this age and time, rote learning has taken a backseat and now the focus is more on conceptual learning where students apply the knowledge that they have gained.
“In the presence of electronic gadgets, internet connectivity and distant learning tools, imparting education has become an art as well. Instead of learning through one text book approach, now activities are planned to give students an understanding of the project. For example, instead of teaching about solar system through diagrams in books, children can be asked to play the role of sun and the planets and move in orbits at prescribed speeds.”
What needs to be understood is that it is more important to invest intelligently in order to attract children to school. In the future, it is hoped that the encouraging results, achieved through such projects, are registered by the government and replicated in other parts of the country so that the masses can benefit from it.
