Community-led Education Opportunities in Pakistan (CEOP)

HOPE’87 and Elementary Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF) are teaming up to provide educational opportunities in Pakistan. This project is being implemented in 7 target districts in Pakistan for 24 months. The overall objective is to give marginalized out-of-school children, especially girls, access to quality educational opportunities in safe learning environments throughout communities in Pakistan. The goal is to increase the number of girls enrolled and reduce the drop-out rate in the supported communities across the 7 seven districts. This project improves access to educational facilities, provide learning opportunities through community mobilization, build the capacity of teachers and improve governance. The number of local female teachers has also significantly increased, creating a more “pro-girl” culture within the schools. This enables more women to reach further management levels of education in the long-run.

Project Background: 

In Pakistan, 22.5 million children are out of school between the ages of 4 to 16. As per UNESCO’s Status of Teachers in Pakistan Report (2013), teacher absenteeism and inadequacy were the most significant reasons for poor student learning outcomes. HOPE’87 has carried out the detailed needs assessment study from 28 July 2017 to 25 August 2017 in districts Swat and Manshera of KP province in Pakistan. The study followed the Inter-Agency network for education in emergencies (INEE) standards together with the Conceptual and Methodological Framework (CMF) of the ‘All children in school by 2015: A Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children (OOSCI)’. The assessment was conducted in a holistic, transparent and participatory manner with 30 communities involved, education department (MoESE) and ESEF KP and coordinated with other I/NGOs and education cluster KP. 20 focus group discussions were held with the children’s parents, teachers and community representatives. 4 focus group discussions were held with women only (mainly children’s mothers from the target districts) and 6 focus group discussions were held with children ages 9 to 16 in the presence of child protection experts to help design the action.

Education is a vital investment for human and economic development and it is influenced by the environment within which it exists. Changes in technology, labour market patterns and general global environment all require policy responses. Traditions, culture and faith also reflect upon the education system. The element of continuity and change remains perpetual and it is up to the society to determine its pace and direction.