ISLAMABAD: After seven years of partnerships with federal and provincial education leaders and training of more than 27,000 teachers to improve the reading skills of schoolchildren, the Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has ended.

Around 1.7 million children benefited from the project across Pakistan. Learning material, through the project was developed for teachers and students in Urdu, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, Brahui along with two other Sindhi and Balochi dialects and 7.3 million copies of it were distributed throughout the country.

Education officials from the governments of Pakistan and the United States along with USAID’s implementing partner, the International Rescue Committee, held a ceremony on Wednesday to showcase the progarmme’s success.

“One of the successes of the project was to further validate the importance of learning to read in local languages in the early grades of school. Our hope is that the project’s methodology can expand to all public schools around the country through the support of the Pakistan government and PRP’s partners. As we have seen from the schools where the project was successful, this initiative can improve the foundational reading skills of early grades’ students, which will lead to more success in the later grades,” saidDeputy Mission Director Michael Nehrbass.

Reading and learning material, developed during the project is available on the websites of education departments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh, and the Islamabad Capital Territory for free public access. It can also be downloaded free of cost from the Global Digital Library Portal, www.digitallibrary.io.

PRP’s work with provincial curriculum departments and textbook boards resulted in the adoption of Urdu and Sindhi language curricula and improved textbooks for grades one and two, which incorporate teaching instructions based on phonics, assessment, gender inclusion and equity.The project also supported development of curriculum for teacher education and training for more than 7,700 youth through tertiary education programmes. Consequently, 41pc of the teacher trainees are now employed and 21pc are pursuing higher education.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2020

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.