Message by Mehnaz Aziz
Chief Executive & Founding Director
Children’s Resources International was initiated in Pakistan in 2002 with funding support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)a mandate to improve the quality of education at the public elementary school level. The comprehensive package of interactive methodology, introduced in Pakistan for the first time, has been tried and tested successfully in 35 countries of the world benefiting 2,20,000 educators and 1.25 million children. The public sector has been able to increase enrollments during the last decade. The challenge has been to retain that enrollment whereby not having improved the curriculum, classroom and teaching standards.
CRI’s work has been termed timely in responding to quality issues especially improvement in classroom and teaching techniques. The focus towards improvement in the quality of education is specifically in support of the Education Sector Reform (ESR) Agenda initiated by the Government of Pakistan. CRI’s Interactive Teaching and Learning Program supports five of the seven thrust areas articulated in the ESR plan which includes:
- National Literacy Plan
- Universal Primary Education
- Improving the quality of education through teachers’ training
- Higher Education and Public-Private Partnerships
- Environment and Age Old Teaching Methodologies
The main implementation pillars of the CRI program are as follows:
- Elementary Education
- Family Literacy (Inter-generational Learning)
- Family Involvement
- Higher Education
- Inclusive Education
I am proud to report that what started as a pilot program in 118 schools in 2002 in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi City Districts has now expanded to include the entire school district of the Islamabad Capital Territory (both rural & urban). This increases the number of schools to approximately 400.
In the pilot phase we have impacted more than 1,200 teachers in over 700 classrooms reaching out to more than 25,000 students. Approximately 3,000 parents have benefited from our Inter-generational Family Literacy Program and have acquired basic mathematics and literacy skills.
As we unfold our program expansion in 2006 to 281 additional schools in the Islamabad Capital Territory to reach out to approximately 200,000 children in over 2,600 classrooms, the work on the first phase has started. The inter-generational family literacy component will expand to include another 110 schools to benefit more than 5,000 parents.
Our Higher Education courses have reached out to educators of the educators and will be used by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as reference materials for its Bachelors of Education (B.Ed) and Masters of Education (M.Ed) programs.
We are also venturing into inclusive education to be able to inform the educators on minor disabilities that go un-noticed and yet hamper the leaning of the pupil.
With the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Provincial Education Department, it is my team’s mission to improve the quality of education for all and to provide the same level of classrooms and methodologies to children of all sections of the society. Quality education is the only way ahead for our country and we will continue with our mission till the achievement of our goals. |
