Every 7th school in Sindh is non functional.

Every 7^th school in Sindh is non functional.

Sindh is facing an education emergency: ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop.

“Education sector is one of the most neglected area in Sindh, whereas ghost schools are the most crucial issue in Sindh”, this was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop in Karachi today.

According to the recent survey of non functional and ghost schools by Supreme Court of Pakistan, there are at least 6,164 non functional and ghost schools in Sindh, this means every 7^th school in Sindh is non functional. “There is a dire need to address the education emergency in Sindh, as the future of the next generations depend on the quality of education”, this was discussed by renowned speakers from media, academia and civil society while addressing the participants of the workshop. A large number of participants from academia, civil society and media attended the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop.

The ILM-o-AGAHI workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).More than thirty education reporters from leading media entities of print, television, radio and online journalism were selected for this workshop.

According to the Alif Ailaan education data there are 12 million children in Sindh between the age of 5 and 16, of which 6.1 million or 50% are out of school. More than half of the children out of school are girls.

Senior journalist, Mubashir Zaidi, while discussing about the current state of education and role of media, said that the government of Sind spends an estimated Rs. 573 million on schools that exist only on paper. The scope of problem of ghost teachers is crucial as there is no data available on that; however, media reports suggest that many teachers draw salaries from education department without showing up for their jobs. “Education sector is the most neglected area in media, however with the help of civil society, media should play an active role in promoting education” he added. 

While discussing the role of media in policy development, Dr. Tahir Masood, Chairman, Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi, said that learning outcome of children is also a big issue and requires the attention of education policy makers. Sindh’s children score poorly in reading and mathematics compared to children with the rest of the country. “59% of class 5 students in Sindh cannot read a story fluently in Urdu or Sindhi”, Dr. Masood said.

Senior journalist and media researcher Afia Salam, while talking on the role of media in a society’s evolution said, “Education plays significant role in development of a society, due to advancement in education sector, developed countries makes progress by leaps and bounds in all segments of life. Pakistan’s media can play an active role in creating a demand for quality education in the country”.

At the workshop, Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, said that, “Education spending in Sindh is not rationalized and resources are not allocated according to the needs. Across Sindh, 77% of government school buildings are in an unsatisfactory condition, almost half of the government schools in Sindh are missing the basic facility of toilet”. He further said, “to encourage journalists to create public debates on education, Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014”.

Adnan Farooqui, senior communication expert, shared his experiences on the art of story-telling through social media. He briefed the participants about how social media is changing trends of journalism across the globe. How digital communication has made the entire news expression in 145 words.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

Half of the settlements in Balochistan don’t have schools: Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareech, CM Advisor for Education

Half of the settlements in Balochistan don’t have schools: Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareech, CM Advisor for Education.

ILM-o-AGAHI initiative aims to encourage journalists to create narrative on education: ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop

“Half of the settlements in Balochistan don’t have schools. The government is aiming 300 new schools and upgrade 300 primary and 300 secondary schools in Balochistan. Balochistan today needs more emphasis on education sector and media should also follow suit”. This was stated by Advisor to Chief Minister for Education, Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareech, at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop held in Quetta Press Club, today.

Bareech further said "education sector is one of the most neglecting areas in reporting in media. Journalists often find it boring to report or securitize the education sector. “Lack of stakeholders interest and commitment to the education sector makes it different for reporters to do follow up on education policy or scrutinize education budget allocation” he added".

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters from all leading media entities, from print, television, radio and online journalism, were selected for the workshop.

While discussing on current scenario of education, Suleman Raja, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, University of Balochistan said almost one-half of Pakistan’s adult population is unable to read or write limiting opportunity towards acquiring skills and technical knowledge for enhanced productivity. School enrollments are low and school drop out rates too high. “The budgetary allocation to education has remained around 2% of GDP for the past decade, with a high proportion being spent on recurrent heads mainly salaries, leaving a small amount for quality enhancement such as teachers training, curriculum development, provision of school facilities and monitoring and supervision of education” he added.

 

Award winning senior journalist, Mubashir Zaidi, while talking how journalists should pitch their stories to their editors, said that “Pakistan’s media should play an active role in promoting education for the marginalised segments of the society as it can help to eliminate economic disparity through the introduction of quality education”.“New entrants in the field of journalism should therefore strive to sensitize the people on the importance of education, as education is the key to success for progress” he added.

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues “The objective of ILM-o-AGAHI initiative is to encourage journalists to create narratives which enable equal access to education for all while analyzing the policy reforms within the education sector and aimed to strengthen institutions” he added.

He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Ahsan Mukhtar, senior Blogger and manager google business group Islamabad, spoke on the art of story-telling through social media. He said in the age of social media, journalism has seen a paradigm shift with the advent of citizen journalism where everyone is in some way involved in spreading news around. Social Media has broken all social and cultural barriers and has extended the reach of a journalist globally. The role of social media in digital storytelling is crucial. Finding a news, verifying it and publishing has seen a revolutionary change and has helped take transparency to better levels.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

Conflict in Dera Ismail Khan Recede Journalists' Freedom

Conflict in Dera Ismail Khan Recede Journalists' Freedom.

Government, academia, civil society and media should act together for education reforms in the country.

“Education is the only key to reduce terrorism in the country. The future of Pakistan depends on the immediate education reforms and conflict in Dera Ismail Khan recede journalists freedom. It's time to take effective steps for making our educational system better, and it can be done only if all the stake holders including government, academia, media and civil society should focus in Education.” This was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop held for journalists of Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters of Dera Ismail Khan (KPK) from all leading media entities, from print, television, radio and online journalism, were selected for the workshop.

Prof. Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Chairman of Media Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, urged upon that to make education as their top priority of reporting. It is important to report on terrorism and insurgency in KPK, but to fight it off and report terrorism from their areas, promotion of education is the great significance. The journalists have the great responsibility to report on education issues of their areas. It is more like investigating issue of education as hardly education itself generates news.

 

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues. He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Haroon ur Rasheed, ASER’s Pakistan representative, discussed

ASER’s findings on education with the Journalists during the session. He said according to the Annual Status of Education Report – ASER 2013 National Survey, that 12.7 % children have no access to school between the age of 5-16 years.

"Dera Ismail Khan is considered one of the worst areas in terms of the enrolment levels standing at 87.3% enrolment for 6-16 year old children and 12.7% children currently are out of school. Gender gaps do exist in the FATA, ratio of boys and girls in both government and private schools are 70% & 30% and 59% & 41% respectively.”

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

Education is Imperative for Development in FATA

Education is imperative for development in FATA.

Government, academia, civil society and media should act together for education reforms in the country.

Education is the only key to reduce terrorism in the country. The future of Pakistan depends on the immediate education reforms in FATA. It's time to take effective steps for making our educational system better, and it can be done only if all the stake holders including government, academia, media and civil society should focus in Education.” This was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop held for FATA journalists in Peshawar.

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters of Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) from all leading media entities, from print, television, radio and online journalism, were selected for the workshop. 


Prof. Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Chairman of Media Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, urged upon that to make education as their top priority of reporting. It is important to report on terrorism and insurgency in FATA, but to fight it off and report terrorism from their areas, promotion of education is the great significance. The journalists have the great responsibility to report on education issues of their areas. It is more like investigating issue of education as hardly education itself generates news. 


Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues. He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Amjad Faheem, Project Manager Idara Taleem-o-Agahi, discussed ASER’s findings on education with the Journalists during the session. He said according to the Annual Status of Education Report – ASER 2013 National Survey, that 21.4 % children have no access to school between the age of 5-16 years.

"Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) are considered one of the worst areas in terms of the enrolment levels standing at 78.6% enrolment for 6-16 year old children and 21.4% children currently are out of school. Gender gaps do exist in the FATA, ratio of boys and girls in both government and private schools are 74% & 26% and 89% & 11% respectively.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice. 

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

5% Children in Azad Jammu & Kashmir
still out of School with remaining 95% learning
not satisfactory as well

Pakistan’s education reporting in media fairly weak:
ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop

Pakistan’s education and academia reporting within the industry is fairly weak. Alarming factors contributing to the knowledge deficit is the media’s limited exposure to real challenges of education sector in Pakistan and lack of relevant trainings in the media sector.

“Most of the issues related to education and literacy are being reported not in the right context; this not only undermines but also diminishes the importance of educational, training and child development challenges faced by the society.” This was stated by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Arif Khan, Principal Govt. Degree College Mirpur, at the inaugural session ILM-o-Agahi education journalism workshop held at Kasmir Press Club, Mirpur Azad Jammu and Kashmir today.

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters participated in the workshop.

Speaking at the workshop, Syed Abid Hussain Shah, President, Kashmir Press Club, said that “the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative will help strengthen media institutions and create awareness on the education emergency. The initiative will facilitate sustainable literacy and educational development, providing children especially girls a better access to educational facilities.” He further said “It will encourage journalists to create narratives which enable equal access to education for all while analyzing the policy reforms within the education sector.” Media will play its role to safeguard the right of the citizens to education and better life, added Hussain.

Senior Journalist, Mubashir Zaidi conducted the training workshop and shared with the participants that, “more awareness amongst the general public on issues concerning quality and quantum of education in Pakistan is required. It is important to create dialogue on such issues fetching immediate attention of concerned authorities and stakeholders.” Zaidi told the participants the according to article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan, “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such manner as may be determined by law”, however according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2011-12) only 59% of children have been enrolled in schools across Pakistan.

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues. He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Zaheer Abbas, ASER Pakistan representative, discussed ASER’s findings on education inAJK with the Journalists during the session. He said according to the Annual Status of Education Report – ASER 2013 National Survey, fortunately, the percentage of out of school children, in AJK, is one of the lowest in the country, at 5%. However, despite this good news, the learning levels of the remaining 95% are not satisfactory.

Through the ILM-o-Agahi initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues, improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.