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

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

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

MISHAL launches Education Advocacy Program, “ILM-o-AGAHI”

MISHAL launches Education Advocacy Program, “ILM-o-AGAHI”

Every child has the right of free education in Pakistan, but only 59% children enrolled in schools.

Mishal Pakistan has launched ‘ILM-o-AGAHI’ Education Advocacy Program to sensitize the media and policy makers to build consensus on priority education issues. Under the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, Mishal will conduct education journalism workshops for reporters and editors responsible for education related content. Round table meetings and provincial level education conferences will create consensus among the stakeholders to highlight education issues among media, educationists, policy-makers and legislators. This fourteen month long activity is being funded by Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).

According to Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan, “it is the right of every child to have free education and the government to provide free education to every child”, 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.”

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, a series of education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters. The workshops aims to increase the capacity of journalists and improve coverage on education related issues in media. 30 education reporters will be selected to participate in each workshop, to enhance their understanding on the key education issues identified in this initiative and build the skill-set of journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice when reporting on the aforementioned issues.

These education journalism workshops will be held in Islamabad, Peshawar, D.I. Khan, FATA, Lahore, Multan, Bahawalpur, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Quetta, Mirpur and Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir throughout March and April 2014.

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.