‘Coalitions for Foundational Learning’ discussed

LAHORE:A roundtable discussion on “Coalitions for Foundational Learning: Lessons from Brazil and Pakistan” was hosted by the LUMS’ School of Education and facilitated by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) here on Friday.

According to a press release, Dr Rachel Hinton, Global Education Research Lead, Research and Evidence Division, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and Ms Anna Penido, Executive Director, Lemann Center for Leadership and Equity in Education, Brazil opened the session with their ideas and reflections. These were about education coalitions and Dr Rachel Hinton pointed out the research aspects which go into making coalitions such as the South-South Programme that work for foundational learning.

The South-South Programme under Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) is a new, pilot initiative that aims to create and boost means for education leaders from the global South to exchange evidence, practices and lessons on how they can advance powerful cross-sector coalitions to promote educational reforms, so as to improve foundational learning.

Ms Anna Penido discussed the education coalition from the perspective of Brazil and how the municipalities in Ceara and Sobral were the perfect cases of the workings and the foundations of education coalitions. The success stories were driven by data and research which complemented the points put forward by Dr Rachel.

Following this, a discussion round by the Pakistani Fellows was conducted where Dr Faisal Bari, Dean, SoE, LUMS, Qaiser Rashid, Additional Secretary SED and Baela Raza Jamil, CEO ITA highlighted education coalitions and the challenge of national consensus in Pakistan and what lessons can be learnt from Brazil. The Fellows also presented the goals, objectives and challenges met by the coalition in attaining these goals.

Besides examining the challenges, the sessions were structured to identify common themes of what works in educational coalition building between both countries and how such coalitions could be impactful for foundational learning and system level reforms.

The participants gave their inputs and suggestions to the coalitions and how they could be streamlined to create a larger and scalable impact in Foundational Learning.