Need to accelerate the pace of Education at all levels to achieve MDGs targets.

Need to accelerate the pace of Education at all levels to achieve MDGs targets.

Literacy rate of Pakistan is only 60% while Millennium Development Goals target is 80% till 2015.

“Government should allocate substantial amount and accelerate the pace of education at all levels to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets and improve the literacy rate in country. According to recent Economic Survey of Pakistan 2013-14 the literacy rate of the population 10 years and above is only 60% while the Millennium Development Goals target is 80% literacy rate till 2015. 

Pakistan is one of those countries who spends minimum percentage of GDP on education. All the segments of society should join hands to highlight the issues related education and put pressure on stake holders because it is a matter of survival for our future generations.” It was the consensus at editors’ round table meeting organized by ILM-O-AGAHI in Islamabad today. A number of senior journalist, editors and news directors from main stream newspapers and leading TV channels participated in the meeting.

Meeting was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas. Earlier today a training workshop on education journalism was also organized and attended by more than 25 education reporters from various mainstream news organization.

Senior journalist Matiullah Jan, while discussing about role of media, said that journalists covering education reporting should focus on more field reporting and unfortunately, education reporting is not given importance by the editors. Reporting on education can drive reader’s interest only when journalists report the complete picture.

The objective of ILM-O-AGAHI initiative is to improve accountability and media coverage of priority education issues and consensus building on education policies by engaging media.

Through the ILM-O-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops were held across Pakistan during last two months for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters participated where their capacity to report on identified educational challenges enhanced and  improved 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

76% Schools Infrastructure in Sukkur Unsatisfactory

Infrastructure of 76% Schools in Sukkur Unsatisfactory

Future of next generation depends on quality of education, Dr. Arshad Mughal, Advisor to CM Sindh.

“Despite government’s pre election promise to increase the budget allocation on education to 4% of GDP over the next five years, Pakistan still spends a meager 1.9 % of the GDP on education. Due to such low expenditure, Pakistan is among the least spending countries on education. The situation has led to an emergency situation in the education sector”.  This was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop in Sukkur today.

“All the sectors of community have to work collectively for the to improve the socio-economic situation of the people”, this was stated by Dr. Arshad Mughal, Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh, 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.

According to Annual Status of Education Report 2013 (ASER Pakistan) there are 22% out of school children in Sukkur between the ages of 5 to 16 years. The 39% government schools in Sukkur have no boundary wall and 54% without electricity.  

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 Sukkur 76% of government school buildings are in an unsatisfactory condition, almost half of the government schools in Sindh are missing the facility of electricity”, this is an alarming situation as Sukkur ranks 5^th among 23 districts in Sindh on the Alif Ailaan’s District Education Rankings 2013 for schools and 8^th on the quality of education in Sindh. 

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.

Member PPP Sindh Council and former Tehsil Nazim, Mohammad Aslam Sheikh, shared his views with participants about the current state and challenges for female education in the region. He said, Evidence from around the world suggests that increasing investment in girls schooling is one of the most cost-effective way for socio economic development”.

Senior journalist and lead trainer for ILM-o-AGAHI, Mubashar Zaidi, while addressing to the participants said, “The situation is worst in rural Sindh as compared to other parts of the country. There is a dire need to address the issue of non-functional schools in Sindh. Education is one of the most neglected areas of reporting and media organizations should allocate sufficient space for education stories”, he added.

President, Sukkur Union of Journalist, Jan Mohammad Meher, while addressing the participants, stressed that journalists should focus more on field reporting. Reporting on education can drive reader’s interest only when journalists report the complete picture. The education story should be around facts and real life issues. He further said, according to Alif Ailaan Education District Rankings “Sukkur ranks 98^thcountry wide in terms of enrollment, literacy rate and basic education standard out of 145 districts across Pakistan.”

Mumtaz Ali Pirzada, Regional Coordinator, Idara Taleem-o-Agahi, shared the findings of Annual Status of Education Report with participants. He said, ASER 2013 reflects that every single child among four school going children is out of school and remaining three are deprived of Quality Education. ASER 2013 states that out of four children studying in class five only ONE can read story in Sindhi/Urdu. Same is the case with learning levels of English and Arithmetic. Stakeholders are highly urged to take considerable actions to promote quality education in Sukkur.

Social media expert, Ahsan Mukhtar discussed the art of storytelling through social media and said that social media has become an integral part of day-to-day journalism and has catalyzed communication flow in today’s world. Journalist use social media to find and publish news throughout the world.

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

DisruptEd the Way Forward for a Prosperous Pakistan

#DisruptED the Way Forward for a Prosperous Pakistan

Challenging the current ways through which the state is addressing the education emergency in the country, DisruptEd – ideas and conversations for disruptive innovation in Pakistan, organised by Alif Ailaan outlined the need for new approaches to fix the broken system. Despite 25 million children being out of school, the country has not been successful in marshaling its resources for reform or change, nor does the state or society or the polity treat education like the crisis or emergency that we claim it is.

Speaking at the closing session, Ahasan Iqbal, Minister for Planning, Government of Pakistan at the DisruptEd in Islamabad today said, ours is a society characters by great disparities in income, education and opportunity. Nearly half of our country’s children are not in schools and getting them there is a herculean challenge. He further said, the role of technology and innovation in such a scenario is imperative to the way we deliver education not only to children but also to the society as a whole.  

25 million children in Pakistan remains out of school across Pakistan, of those 25 million, about six million have never, ever seen the inside of a classroom. The rest have enrolled at one point or another, only to drop out, most likely within the first three years of enrolling at the age of five. An out of school Pakistani child is more likely to be a girl than an enrolled Pakistani child, with over 15 million of the 25 million out of school kids being girls.

On the quality of education, the government data doesn’t capture quality, at any level, in any province. Our entire conception of education quality is based on the Annual Status of Education Report survey (ASER), a civil society initiative. ASER tells us that of the kids in school, only 50% at the Class 5 level can read a Class 2 level passage in Urdu or their native language (for rural Pakistan, this number increases to 55% for urban Pakistan). 

Based on the theme of disruptive innovation in education, the event highlighted that new avenues to deal with education problem must be explored and implemented to change how the crisis is perceived and addressed by the state and other stakeholders.

The one-day DisruptEd – Ideas and Conversations for Innovation in Education, a daylong multi-sessions initiative brought together leading thinkers, policy makers, civil society concerns and media professionals to discuss and debate the potential of innovation in the education sector.

Mosharaf Zaidi, Director Campaign of Alif Ailaan in his speech said, “without a ‘disruption’ to the way things are, a fundamental change that alters the very basics, there is little chance of Pakistan being able to deal with the Education crisis. None of the major problems in education low enrolment rates, poor quality, lack of accountability and the total absence of a robust discourse can be solved without bold new approach.” We need to stimulate thinking in the public, private and non-profit sectors about solutions to these problems, he added.

Pakistan faces a national education emergency but stories related to education rarely make it to the front page of newspapers or appear in prime-time slots on television. Alif Ailaan’s mission is to put the subject of education at the front and centre of public discourse in Pakistan.

The Oscar award-winning director, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy in her session highlighted the art of story telling on innovation and Disrupted education, she said immersed in an information-driven culture, innovators too must learn to tell a compelling story. 

There are many who claim that Internet bandwidth and capacity are barriers to the use of technology for improving access to education and enriching the learning experience. Others insist that content is king and that educational materials must be developed before or along with the bandwidth to deliver it. But content developers have failed so far to fully exploit the potential of 2G technology. Technology innovation can be the catalyst for change and the disruptive factor for improving the service delivery on education.

Mr. Asad Umar, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s member of the national assembly of Pakistan while talking on public private partnership said that there are serious issues in terms of capacity of state and misplaced priorities of governments. One schooling system policy should be adopted to remove discriminations in education systems.

Marvi Memon, MNA of Pakistan Muslim League (N) shared her views with participants about the status of education at the grass-root level in in Sindh, she said. “Education is our prime objective, however there are a lot other issues like syllabus, teachers capacity, ghost schools and political interference, which needs to be addresses by making legislators accountable to the peoples.

Associate Professor of Lahore University of Management Sciences, Dr. Faisal Bari shared his views about the regulatory framework, he said we have made frameworks and regulations on education but the core issue remains financing free and compulsory education by the state. He said the state and society are not thinking, where we can have money to ensure quality of education.

Kasim Kasuri, Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum and CEO of Beacon House School Systems said that there are many challenges and hurdles for private sector to work in the education sector and no meaningful recommendations have been incorporated while preparing any laws to govern this sector.

A general consensus from various sessions was gathered on the need for a universal education system in the country, where the private sector can bring in the efficiencies through innovation in management, the public sector with its infrastructure and the civil society organization with their civic engagements can improve the current state of education in the country. However the critical factor remains the need for legislators to allocate more attention to education in terms of both governance and allocation of funds.

Alif Ailaan was founded to bring together and empower all those Pakistanis who want to respond to the country’s education emergency, and equip our children to succeed for themselves and for Pakistan.

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

Role of Media stressed to evaluate and assess quality of education - ILM-o-AGAHI "Education Journalism Workshop", Muzaffarabad, AJK

Role of Media stressed to evaluate and assess quality of education.

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

“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. This will broaden the vision and horizon of the students to excel in life.” This was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop held in Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, today. Journalists also agreed that “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.”

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.

Participants at the ILM-o-AGAHI "Education Journalism Training Workshop" in Muzaffarabad

Prof. Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Chairman of Media Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, spoke on the role of media in policy development in education sector. He highlighted state of affairs of education and educational management in AJK and stressed upon the need of investigative journalism in the education sector. Not only more schools and more teachers, he realized the journalists from AJK to evaluate and assess the quality of Education being important. He also shared the findings of his relevant research on the content of books being taught in the schools and probable impacts on the children behavior.

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, Manager Google Business Group, 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.

Sheikh Muhammad Mustaq, Chief Executive Officer, Hamza Development Foundation, 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 5.3 % children have no access to school between the age of 5-16 years.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a citizen led initiative and survey to check the quality education. According to the survey in AJK 95 % children of 16 years old are enrolled in schools and 5.3 % are out of school, this is very appreciable enrollment rate but quality wise 39 5 children of class 5^th can’t read Urdu story of class 2 level. 42% children of class 5^th can’t read English sentence of class 2. “Our enrolment is better, but we have no quality of education” he added.

Earlier, a workshop on education journalism was held at the Kashmir Press Club, Mirpur, AJK, where journalists agreed to launch a Journalists for Education Forum in Mirpur, AJK. 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