Insights

An adolescent girl from a marginalized family reviving her dream to continue her education. A young female teacher taking charge of an educational transformation in her community. A madrassah (seminary) administrator allowed modern education to be offered to his madrassah students along with religious education. These are some of the many success stories about transformative change emerging from Buner and Upper Dir districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. In areas where 92% of children rely on government schools for education, there is a rising number of out-of-school children due to poverty, geopolitical conflict, access, and inadequate primary school infrastructure.

According to the Benazir Income Support Program’s National Economic Registry Census, 4.7 million (39%) children 5-16 years old do not go to school in KP. Though the government and donors have made efforts to boost enrolment, the absence of schools renders these initiatives impractical. While the province has over 30,000 schools, another 30,000 are needed to meet the needs of out-of-school children, and it would take at least five years to develop the necessary infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about extensive disruptions that had a severe impact on the education and future opportunities of children, particularly exacerbated by school closures that lasted for more than a year. This situation unfolded within the backdrop of an already fragile education system.

The government of KP has given priority to non-formal education, particularly the Accelerated Learning Programs (ALP), as outlined in the KPK Education Sector Plan 2020-2025. This emphasis on ALP is intended to address the educational challenges faced by out-of-school children and adolescents who have missed years of formal schooling. ALP is a valuable initiative that aims to assist these learners in catching up and acquiring essential education within a shorter timeframe. With the support of grantees, the USAID-funded NPI EXAND Human Development Activity (HDA) in Pakistan offers an alternative to traditional education systems, designed to be flexible and tailored to the unique needs of students who have encountered educational obstacles. Notably, upon completing this program, more than 27% of ALP graduates have either already enrolled in mainstream schools or are preparing to do so. The strategic placement of ALP centers within government primary and middle schools has played a pivotal role in facilitating this opportunity.

To address the social and gender barriers in education service delivery and to address out-of-school children’s needs, NPI EXPAND HDA awarded grants to six local partners to enhance out-of-school children’s access to basic education, with a particular focus on adolescent girls in Buner and Upper Dir. NPI EXPAND HDA supported grantees to equip each ALP center with teaching and learning material including teaching guides, textbooks, school bags, and stationery for teachers and students. Most ALP centers are in community-rented buildings or housed within government schools. Their timings vary; the ones in the government schools often run classes in the afternoons after the end of the school day.

Through these grants, NPI EXPAND HDA partners have successfully enrolled 10,340 students, with an impressive 87% of them being girls, from Buner and Upper Dir. Two hundred and seventy-four ALP centers in both districts have become safe havens for girls who have dropped out after completing primary school, providing them with an opportunity to continue their learning, and for students who have not been able to enroll in school due to the distance from their villages.

Girls in an NPI EXPAND-supported ALP Center in Upper Dir

553 teachers have been trained on the ALP curriculum by master trainers from the Directorate of Professional Development, KP; an impressive 83.4% of these teachers are female. This initiative has created a sustainable pool of highly skilled educators for future educational interventions. Careful selection of teachers was a critical aspect of this program to ensure that they belonged to the local community and were deeply invested in the success of the ALP centers. One of these trained teachers is Haram Bibi from Buner, a woman with a disability who uses hearing aids and overcame many challenges to become the first graduate in her family. The ALP curriculum provided her with an opportunity to give back to the girls from her community, and she motivated 30 adolescent girls from her village to enroll in the ALP program. All 30 girls completed their program and have graduated.

NPI EXPAND HDA employed diverse mobilization tools to raise awareness about the ALP centers and motivate the local community to enroll out-of-school children in schools or in the ALP centers. Village Education Committees, endorsed by the Executive District Officer, were formed in the targeted villages and are comprised of dedicated local individuals who educated their communities on the importance of education and the opportunities offered by the centers. Religious leaders and local communities were engaged and mobilized through various awareness-raising campaigns, including social media, radio messages in local languages, and awareness-raising walks. This mobilization had a positive impact on many lives, including Asif Khan. Asif is from a remote village in District Buner and had to drop out of school to support his family by working at a clothing store. One of his neighbors informed his parents about the ALP initiative. A few community elders also visited his home and encouraged his parents to send Asif to the ALP center, so that he could attend classes in the afternoon and continue working at the clothing store in the morning. Asif completed his courses.

The ALP centers’ success and acceptance can be attributed to the extensive community engagement and local support facilitated by NPI EXPAND HDA. There were challenges at the beginning, including resistance from a few local community members about the course content and the ALPs’ intentions, especially in Buner. However, since the community was already empowered, it stepped in to address these doubts and helped ensure smooth progress. Student retention was another significant challenge, primarily due to the severe winters and the fact that many students had to work during the day to support their families. To address this, ALP centers provided flexible class timing to accommodate the community’s needs.

The primary goal of the accelerated learning program is to offer students the chance to finish their ALP course at their grade level and subsequently integrate them into the formal school system, enabling them to become part of the mainstream educational system. The transition of students from ALP centers to formal schools has proven to be challenging, primarily because of the willingness of school headteachers or other authorities to accept these students into schools. NPI EXPAND HDA and its partners worked with the education department to ensure that ALP students could continue their education in government schools upon successful completion of their ALP courses. Every ALP graduate receives a certificate, signed by the relevant District Education Officer.

The ongoing collaboration between NPI EXPAND HDA and the government provides out-of-school children with an opportunity to transition seamlessly from non-formal to formal education. The Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation is committed to adopting and maintaining 18-20 ALP centers in Buner and a smaller number in Upper Dir after NPI EXPAND HDA grants closeout in early 2024, This will help ensure the program’s sustainability. The World Bank has also indicated an interest in supporting 194 centers in Upper Dir; NPI EXPAND HDA is having discussions on this front with the World Bank and the KP government.

A key element of sustainable interventions is working with and through local organizations. NPI EXPAND HDA engaged and trained six local partners and their staff on ALP interventions: NIDA Pakistan, Takal Welfare Organization, Women Empowerment Organization, Peace and Development Organization, Hujra Voluntary Support Organization, and Participatory Rural Development Society. These organizations will continue to provide advocacy, capacity building, and technical support to the government in their future interventions. They are well-versed in cultural sensitivities and the local context and can provide an inclusive perspective on future interventions designed and implemented by the government and its partners.

The ALP centers are an example of how fostering collaborative effort, community engagement, and commitment to bring children – especially girls – to school can culminate in a sustainable support mechanism for the education department to ensure that children can continue with their education.