ngo working for education

1
NGO's Role in Education 50 Years of Pakistan
By Fayyaz Baqir Local Heritage of Community Work
in Education The areas that now constitute
Pakistan had in place a very sound and firm
tradition of providing education on the basis of
self-help by beneficiary communities a little
more than a hundred years ago. This self-help
system provided universal literacy to males and
females in most of urban and rural settlements
through a very elaborate management structure of
traditional rural communities which has been
called "Village Corporation" or "Village
Republic" by many modern social scientists. The
nature, level and outreach of this education was
partly described by G.W. Leitner, Director of
Public Instruction in Punjab in his "Report on
indigenous Education in Punjab" submitted to
Government of (British) India and published in
1882. This system of universal literacy based on
the concepts of voluntary work and self-help was
not known as NGO work and was much larger in
scale compared to present NGO initiatives but was
built on the same conceptual foundations on
which educational activities have been
successfully undertaken among low-income
communities by NGOs during the past few decades.
There were eight different types of schools and
standard of education and pedagogical methods
used in these schools were so high that they
were imported in England in the earlier part of
the nineteenth century. These schools included
Pathshala schools, Chatshala schools, Gurmukhi
schools, Sanskrit schools, Arabic schools,
Persian schools, Quran schools and special
schools for merchant class. Describing
educational work in punjab Leitner stated that
"By 1854-55 there were 28,879 villages and at
least as many schools in Punjab. In towns, Delhi
had 279 schools, Amritsar 143 schools,and
Sialkot 38.. (Leitner, 1882, pp.4)". Rate of
literacy was so high that referring to 1852
Settlement Report Leitner mentioned that " In the
backward district of Hushiarpur there was 1
school for every 19.65 males ( Ibid, pp.2).
Education was considered basic moral
responsibility of every educated individual and
in the words of Leitner "I am not acquainted with
any Native, Hindu, Mohammadan, or Sikh, who, if
at all proficient in any branch of indigenous
learning or service, does not consider it to be a
proud duty to teach others." (Ibid, pp.19)
Continuing his statement he says "Even among
those educated natives who have not thrown aside
social or religious restraints, I have known men
devoting half of their slender incomes to
maintaining schools or pupils at them" (Ibid,
pp.19). This voluntary spirit was integrally
linked with a sound financial management system
established by various communities as well as
farming community in general. A brief
description of this community based system for
providing education is given below.
2
Self-help system of management of schools In
Hindu communities people living together in a
settlement constituted an organized body, and
various functionaries who met important needs of
this community enjoyed rights over the soil.
These functionaries included the headmaster,
accountant, police officer, the priest, the
school master, the astrologer, the smith, the
carpenter, the barber, the potter, the leather
worker, as well as other non farming specialists
and tradesmen. Due to their recognized rights
over the land the received a share from the crop
at the time of harvest. This provided a
sustainable arrangement for the community to
receive various professional services that it
needed. Consequently one could not see a single
child in any Hindu village- except for the
children of outcast families- who was not able
to read, to write and write. (Ibid pp18). Among
the Sikh communities financial management of Sikh
schools depended on five different sources i)
Allocation of land for schools, ii) Contribution
of Sikh fraternity for the cause of education of
Sikh children, iii) Endowment of Dharamsalas to
which Gurmukhi schools were attached iv)
Presents of students or their parents to the
teachers (Ibid, pp35) and v) Fees given by
parents in cash or kind for their children's
education. These fees were preferentially given
to Dharamsala or Dehra rather than Bhai (school
teacher) in person as a sign of respect to the
teacher. Muslim communities established and
supported Persian and Quran schools. These
schools were generally held in or just outside
the mosque, and most of the times a teacher was
attached to these schools. Quran schools existed
in almost every mosque in Punjab as well as in
private houses. Persian schools were open to
students from other religions and were largely
attended by Hindus who in the words of Leitner
were " more attracted by the persian language
than repelled by the Mohammadan religion" ( Ibid
pp.59, 69). Male members of every religious and
professional community used to teach female
members of the family at home which led to
universal literacy among males and females in
Punjab. There are fragmented evidences of
existence of similar systems in areas outside
Punjab also. Success and demise of traditional
education system Provision of universal literacy
through community participation depended on three
core components of traditional model i)
Selection and provision of site for school and
financial support of the teacher by local
community. ii) Permanent arrangement for
financial support of local teachers through a
variety of means including allotment of plots for
school, presents and gifts to school teachers,
creation of endowments for education and
provision of share in the village crop. iii)
Teaching others as a basic moral responsibility
of every educated person. Successful,
sustainable and community oriented models of
education in low income communities of
contemporary Pakistan depend exactly on the same
three elements. The gap caused by the
discontinuity of the traditional system was
anticipated by Leitner and he had warned that if
community based system of education is demolished
under the pretext of modernization of education
literacy will be wiped out from Punjab. Leitner's
prediction prophetically came true.
3
It is interesting to have a cursory look at the
reasons which led Leitner to arrive at this
conclusion true. At the time of British
annexation of Punjab village cess collected from
each village was used to cover the salary of
three village functionaries Lumberdar, Chowkidar
and School Teacher. British administration in
Punjab decided to continue the salaries of
lumberdars and chowkidars- which are paid by the
government to this very day- and discontinued the
salary of local school teachers diverting the
funds to selected government schools in urban
areas for providing "modern" education. That was
it. As the source of supporting local school
teacher with local resources was blocked
community based education system fell apart.
Schools run by religious communities with their
own resources were gradually closed down due to
lack of further demand by government for people
trained in indigenous schools as well as arm
twisting tactics used by the government
functionaries. During the period between 1850s
and independence from British Raj leaders of
various communities concentrated their efforts
for creating institutions of higher learning to
train middle and upper strata of
population. NGO's Work for Education after
Independence At the time of creation of Pakistan
in 1947, private sector had a major share in
providing education through schools at various
levels. These private schools were run both by
societies motivated by the cause of promoting
education as well as individuals making their
living through education and teaching. No
detailed figures about the share of private
owners and societies are available but breakdown
between the government and private sector is
known. Whereas government owned 4 of primary
schools, private sector owned 43 of these
schools. The figures for ownership of middle and
high schools were 3 and 9 for government and
47 and 83 for private sector respectively.
Rest of the schools i.e. 53 primary schools, 50
of middle schools and 8 of high schools were
run by the local bodies. Since government was
not able to meet most of the educational needs of
population with its given resources, private
sector continued to play an important role in
providing education. One important change that
took place was greater role of private sector in
providing education at higher level and
increased involvement of government in primary
and middle level education. Consequently
government owned 93 of primary schools and 88
of middle schools and private sector operated
40 high schools and 51 colleges. The role of
local bodies declined significantly during this
period and share of educational institutions
managed by them came down to less than 10 in
the case of primary and middle schools and
colleges and 26 in the case of high schools.
Due to nationalization of educational
institutions in 1972 role of private sector and
NGOs for provision of education was briefly
interrupted but it resumed its functioning in
1979 with the result that by 1990 5000
educational institutions were being run by
non-government enterprises and organizations to
provide education from primary to University
level (Qaisrani, 1989). Due to lack of
availability of any reliable research and
documentation regarding the role of non
government enterprises and organizations it is
not possible to draw a detailed map of NGO
involvement in education between 1947 and 1990.
Some insights based on qualitative studies
present the following picture of NGO schools i)
Majority of schools run by NGOs are located in
4

• urban areas and less than 50 of these schools
  are owned by NGOs ii) A large number of teachers
  in these schools is untrained and they work way
  below the salary of government school teachers
  with longer hours of work. iii) Student teacher
  ration in these schools is mostly between 120
  to 140 which is much better than student teacher
  ratio in most of the government schools iv)
  Minimum fee charged in these schools is Rs.50
  which shows community capacity to avail fee
  based services at reasonable prices. Detailed
  information based on current activities of NGO
  managed schools is given below.
• PRESENT STAGE OF NGO WORK IN EDUCATION
  EDUCATIONAL MYTHS
• The success of NGO work in education is based on
  rejecting some common myths about education and
  exploding these myths through community level
  work. It is therefore paramount that these myths
  be examined and exposed before the role of NGOs
  in the education sector is considered. Some of
  these myths about education are given below.
• Present education is socially relevant
• The first myth circulating in our society is that
  education is necessary because it is useful or
  socially relevant. Since the majority of people
  in our country are illiterate, many can't comment
  on the benefits of education. Those who are
  literate are faced with high rates of
  unemployment. This phenomenon of low literacy
  rates and a high rate of unemployment exist
  simultaneously if our education system is
  producing people not prepared for fulfilling
  societal needs. Persistence of this myth has
  precluded any major effort for bringing about any
  basic changes in our education system. This
  attitude about education is strengthened by other
  common myths also. The reason we are having so
  much difficulty in making a transition from a
  predominantly oral culture to a written culture
  is our misunderstanding of the basic flaws of our
  education system. Analysis of fundamental myths
  surrounding our education shows the relevance,
  utility and effectiveness of NGOs in meeting the
  challenges of a contemporary society.
• Education means formal schooling
• Another common misconception is reducing
  education to the process of going through a
  formal schooling system. This has deprived most
  of the initiatives by government and
  non-governmental agencies of the flexibility,
  adaptability and effectiveness of education
  offered through distant learning, functional
  literacy programs as well as continuous and
  non-formal education. A lack of awareness of
  advantages of alternative education arrangements
  with curriculum based on the assessment of
  specific needs of the target student population,
  a short period for completing studies, flexible
  study hours and use of unconventional teaching
  techniques has blocked the progress of basic and
  functional literacy at the grass roots level.
• The Government is responsible for mass education

5
Another myth which has paralyzed the popular will
for accomplishing a high rate of literacy is the
belief that the Government is basically
responsible for and capable of promoting
universal literacy. This view is also held
because most of us are not aware of the existence
of short term adult literacy programs,
economically affordable home schools in low
income areas, and the role of literacy as a
powerful tool for community development and
community level costs and benefits of basic and
functional literacy. The involvement of NGOs in
all aspects of education from setting up home
schools in low income areas to establishing
internationally reputed universities of Medical
and Managerial Sciences has clearly demonstrated
that total dependence on the government is not
the only choice available to us. 4. There is a
lack of resources for education Although
Pakistan ranks amongst the countries devoting the
smallest share of resources for education, it is
important to note that a lack of financial
resources is not the basic cause of the high
rate of illiteracy here. During most of the
Pakistan's Economic Plan period we have not spent
more than 50 percent of the resources allocated
for primary education. Only during an 8 year
interval between 1970-78 were up to 94 percent
of resources allocated for primary education
actually spent. (See Table 1). A critical review
of available financial and physical resources
shows that it is not the availability but proper
utilization of resources which constitutes the
basic problem in spreading mass education in
Pakistan. Although there are around 46,894
villages in Pakistan " the number of mosque
schools (25,200) alone can cover a sizable
portion of the population and following the home
school and community centre models can
substantially add to the existing capacity of the
schooling system (Siddiqui, 1990 32). Table 1
Plan Allocation and Expenditure on Primary
Education
Plan Allocation for Primary Education (Million Rs.) Actual Expenditure (Million Rs.) Utilization (Percentage)
1955-60 51.4 21.2 41.0
1960-65 78.0 19.0 24.0
1965-70 68.5 25.0 36.5
1970-78 473.9 444.0 94.0
1978-83 1970-78 1413.1 46.3
1983-88 7000.0 3533.0 50.5
Source Siddiqui, 1990 24
6

• Education can be spread without community
  participation
• The reason that a very small portion of
  population has access to basic literacy (despite,
  inter alia, the availability of physical
  resources, educated and available teachers, and
  the demonstrated financial viability of home
  based schools) is that there is a lack of
  community participation. The myth that education
  can be spread without community participation is
  significant as has been demonstrated by the
  experiences of many of the developed economies.
  Community participation is important for two
  fundamental reasons.
• Firstly, community participation introduces the
  elements of relevance and accountability to our
  education system. This makes education meaningful
  and interesting for students, helps to lower the
  dropout rate and improves the quality of
  education.
• Secondly, community run home schools, mosque
  schools or other similar models would check the
  leakage of resources and provide a low cost
  alternative to the traditional government run
  primary schools. (See Table 2)
• Further the establishment of home schools
  requires a tiny fraction of the total resources
  required compared to the traditional alternative
  and strengthens community control over education
  and its initiative for undertaking other
  development activities. This is another fact
  which needs to be brought to the public's
  attention, thereby strengthening the NGO's
  initiative for mass literacy.
• Education can be spread by increasing the number
  of schools
• The final and perhaps most powerful myth which
  needs to be explored is that there is only one
  viable form of education and form of pedagogy.
  Spreading education to many simply means
  increasing the number of schools rather than
  improving pedagogical techniques to made
  education more useful and attractive for
  students. A detailed review of an alternative
  system is given below.
• New vision of education
• 1. There exists two divergent views on education
  participatory or authoritarian. The spread of
  literacy and its impact on socio-economic
  development depend on which view of education one
  accepts and upholds. Does one consider education
  a mere means of control or the realization of
  freedom and latent creative energies of the
  students? According to the participatory or
  active learning principle, learning can be
  facilitated by creating situations and
  undertaking activities in which individuals
  acquire knowledge by working on the solutions
  themselves. Here, the teacher only directs the
  students toward the solution by asking specific
  questions or posing problems Students are active
  in describing, analyzing, suggesting, deciding
  and planning.

7
School Types Ten Room School Two Room School Mosque School Home School
Items Start-up/Building 1,500,000 250,000? 75,000? 3,000
Teachers Salary 1,500 1,500 300 500
No. of Teachers needed 10 2 1 1
Enrollment Capacity 400 Under 100 Under 100 50
Ministry of Education, 1989, pp.3 Field Survey
National Education Consultants, 1990 pp.48 Ashraf, 1990, pp.95

• In traditional education authoritarian model, the
  teacher is seen as possessing all the essential
  information, and the pupils are seen as empty
  vessels to be filled in with knowledge (Hope, pp
  9) Under active learning, education is
  considered as a process of location and
  reconstruction of experience. A teacher's job,
  instead of indoctrinating the students, is to
  help students learn through asking appropriate
  questions and posing problems and build their
  capability to solve problems instead of blindly
  following instructions. This type of education
  whether for children or adults serves as an
  entry point for social change instead of being
  limited to a set of uninteresting rituals. It
  works like magic. Among the NGOs contacted by
  TVO only Teachers' Resource Center (TRC), The
  Book Group (TBG), and Aurat Muaven Aurat (AMA)
  are practicing the participatory approach other
  NGOs are not even aware that this is a
  pedagogical issue at all. In government run
  institutions even if certain individuals have
  this awareness they are unable to do anything
  about it.
• The effectiveness of participatory learning is
  confirmed by the observation that there is a
  tremendous gap in the level of achievement of a
  majority of children in learning spoken and
  written language. The reason for this is simple,
  the elements of free expression, encouragement,
  free choice of subject of matter and the
  immediate connection of the subject of
  conversation in learning a spoken language are
  conspicuously missing when a child learns the
  written language. A complete reversal of the
  pedagogical method in teaching written language
  and other subjects leads to lower rate of
  participation and learning among children as
  well as adults (Mustafa n.p.).
• The teacher student relationship
• The dominant approach to education also
  determines the teaching methods and pattern of
  student teacher relationship which strengthens
  the common lack of interest and apathy toward
  education
• This practice, instead of selecting appropriate
  ideas and tools for generating productive
  dialogue
• between teachers and students, reduces education
  to the Pavlovian practice of using fear as a
  conditioning device for evoking desired response
  from students. Education therefore becomes a
  means of institutionalizing dependence rather
  than an instrument of social change.
• This becomes a major block in the way of
  promoting mass literacy. Amnesty International is
  working toward educating teachers and students
  on human rights in schools at present.
  Coordination of this

8
work with other efforts to design new reading
materials and training programs for teachers can
produce valuable results. 4.Teachers'
training Teacher's training is the weakest link
in the chain of our education system. Training on
subject as well as teacher-student communication
is weak and irrelevant and does not provide any
back up facility to the teachers when they start
functioning in the schools. The TRC has started
providing meaningful training to school teachers
in Karachi but it is serving a very narrow urban
base, does not provide training in the field, and
has not institutionalized any continuous
training programme. TBG is also providing
teachers' training especially for the use of
reading materials created by them. They are
interested in having a wide outreach and should
be supported in building their training
programme. Field based training at the district
level in Punjab would be the strong point of Ali
Institute of Education (AIE). Teachers training
centres -Beaconhouse Resource Center (BRC and
Karachi Grammar School Staff Development Center
(KGSDC) have recently been set up by the Karachi
Grammar School and Beaconhouse School system
also. Specialized training for teaching English
language is provided by English Language Resource
Unit (ELRU), Renewal and Improvement of Schools
(RISE), Society of Pakistan English Language and
Teachers (SPELT) and Pakistan American Cultural
Center (PACC). There is no programme offering
continuous follow- up of initial training given
and providing interactive training for helping
teachers in solving problems arising from every
day teaching activities. Training for teachers
of adult literacy classes is provided by Adult
Basic Education Society (ABES) and Local
Government Training Institute (LGTI). There is no
professional training available for teachers of
working children's schools. Components of a vital
training programme are scattered at different
locations. A better awareness on part of the
users and the training of trainers through a
combined programme could help to meet training
needs efficiently. Details of general,
specialized and continuous training programs for
school teachers run by NGOs are given in Table 3
below. Table 3 Type and Capacity of teachers
training by NGOs
Type of Training Institution Offering Beneficiaries per year (Avg) Total Beneficiaries
Workshop/Seminar TRC 1400 8,493
Field Based AIE Planning Stage N.A.
Home schools Busti - 314
Adult Literacy ABES, LGTI 1,000 20,000
Field Based IED 40 90 teachers in Northern Areas
9

• Source NGO Documents, personal Contact
• Education as an end or a means
• The social impact of education land especially
  adult literacy) cannot be fully realized if its
  connection with the process of development is
  not understood. As an instrument of social change
  opening the communication horizon through
  literacy should move hand in hand with the
  opening up of creative energy in the form of
  social action for change. Literacy and education
  do not have a neutral social impact. They are
  acts that reveal social reality in order to
  transform it. (Hope, pp. 16). Paulo Friere has
  offered an elaborate framework for using adult
  literacy as an entry point for social action for
  development. It has been applied successfully by
  many community based organizations all over the
  world (Freire, pp83).
• From Freire's point of view literacy becomes an
  agent of change only if it is considered a means
  and not an end of the work in the communities.
  In Pakistan most of the organizations involved in
  adult literacy do not link their literacy work
  with community development and thus lose a
  potential opportunity for building social
  institutions and initiating a process of
  sustainable development. Only one organization
  AMA of Sargodha has followed a combined strategy
  and established 30 literacy centers which have
  undertaken development activities based on self-
  reliance. ABES and Family Planning Association of
  Pakistan (FPAP) have also shown interest now in
  experimenting with their method in selected
  areas. More coordination for this purpose needs
  to be encouraged. There is also a need to visit
  and evaluate the AMA programme and assist the
  trainers in documenting the lessons learnt from
  the 3 years experiment in Sargodha.
• Contents and materials
• Most of the reading materials used in our primary
  schools and some of the adult literacy programs
  are made with complete disregard for the level
  of students' exposure and interaction with
  reality. "What little reading material is
  available, is not systematically scrutinized for
  appropriate thought processes or interest level
  of children. The stories do not relate to
  children' world in any form. Difficult ideologies
  are presented which are beyond a child's
  capability level and have no relationship to the
  child's thought process" (National Book Council,
  pp.46). " In addition, the TRC has also found
  that conventional syllabi are poorly related to
  everyday world/local environment of children, and
  there is an absence of integration between
  theoretical and practical course components"
  (TRC, 1989 pp.41). As a result, the TRC felt a
  need to
• encourage initiatives like the Book Group where
  reading material is designed specifically to
  clarify concepts, and teach skills through
  activity,
• pay attention to social, emotional and scientific
  learning,
• help children as well as adults learn through
  problem solving iv) develop modules as a means
  for holding dialogue, and

10

• make use of indigenous audio visuals.
• "Materials and activities should be designed to
  develop the child socially, emotionally and
  physically and develop the child's ability to
  communicate, understand scientific and
  mathematical concepts and create through a
  variety of media" ( TRC, 1991 pp.7). At present
  only TBG, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and
  TRC are producing such materials. The same
  strategy needs to be followed for adult
  literacy.
• Nirali Kitabain is producing literacy materials
  for adults and distributing it through ABES and
  Health Education and Adult Literacy (HEAL). A
  new team in HEAL is working on improving these
  materials at present. Details of reading
  materials and regular publications of different
  NGOs are given in the Table 4.
• Table 4 Reading Materials produced by NGOs

Name of NGO Type of Publication Name of Publication No. of titles/ serials No. of Copies/ title
The Book Group Books Teachers Guides Book series for school children 16 6,000
TRC Children Mg. Child Mg. Env. Env. Ed. Mg. Newsletter Book Funline Alif Ujala Gulistan Teachers Early Childhood Education Handbook 1 500 1,000
WWF Comic Book Panda Comics 7 9,000
Nirali Kitabain Basic and Functional Literacy Functional Literacy Books, AV Cassttes 260 Every title has many eds. in 000s
Aurat Muaven Aurat Teachers Manual Muallim-i- Asatiza 1 1,000
Source Brochures, Reports and Personal
Contacts 7. Duration of courses and class
timings Working children of school going age,
farmers, adult females and other people in
similar situations are ready to come to school
and attend classes if class schedules are decided
keeping in view the economic and social demands
on their time. ABES has been running its adult
literacy classes very successfully
11
because it offers classes only during the 6
months Slack period for farmers between October
and March. Similarly adult females class
timings are adjusted keeping in view their work
schedule. Some home schools have handled the
time constraint faced by their students by
offering to complete 5 years work in 3 years by
using traditional summer vacation time for
reading purposes. Their school hours are also
different and adjusted in view of the special
needs of the children from low income families.
Distant and continuous education is offered by
Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and some
other organizations making it easy for a very
large group of people to join literacy classes.
Innovative solutions regarding length, duration,
spacing and frequency of courses and classes
offered can create opportunities of receiving
education where none existed before. Table 5
gives a summary of some of the programs run by
NGOs on these lines. Time management needs to be
used as an important tool for educational
planning at all levels. Table 5 Duration of
Courses and class timings in different literacy
programmes
Name of NGO Course Offered Duration Class Time Literacy Level
ABES Basic Lit. Funct. Lit. 6 months 6 months Aft. / Eve Basic Ed. Health etc
HSTWO Primary Ed. 3 years Flexible Primary
YCHR Primary Ed. 3 years Mor/ Eve Primary
OPD Primary Ed. 3 years Flexible Primary
Source NGO documents 8. Extracurricular
activities Debates, games, trips to museums,
competitions/contests, melas, visit of
exhibitions, and science caravan display are
being used now by organizations as diverse as
Anjuman Bara-e-Taleem (ABT), Society for
Advancement of Education (SAHE), Anjuman
Behbood-e-Mehnat Kash Atfal (AMBA), Youth
Commission for Human Rights (YCHR), and Pakistan
Science Foundation. They have been used to
provide working children a respite from the
drudgery of work, induce the involvement of
parents and community in educational work,
stimulate interest in the study of science and
use of logical thinking among students, and
introduce liveliness in otherwise regimented
education system. Some school children groups
and NGOs have used theater, puppet shows, skits
and other performance art forms as a means of
education itself. Prominent among these are
Rosary Hospital, Children-to-Children (CTC)
health education groups in Chitral and
Baluchistan and numerous other little known
missionary groups. Latent possibilities existing
in these art forms and extra curricular
activities need to be used more systematically
specially for encouraging reading habits (see
Table 6 for an overview of extra curricular
activities employed by NGOs for educational
purposes). Table 6 Unconventional educational
activities
Name of Educational Purpose Target Area
12
NGO Activity Beneficiary
ABT Science Mela, Visit Museum, Planetarium, Essay Contest Promote scientific thinking School Children Punjab
ALBBS Hobby Clubs Help learn technology same Lahore
CTC Drama Group Health Ed. same Baluchistan, Chitral
PSF Moving Exhibition Planetarium Knowledge of nature, science same Pakistan
RH Drama Group Health, Env Child,/comm Gujrat
SAHE Drama Group Awareness Child/comm Lahore
TAF Box Libraries Cultural Literacy Community Pakistan
Source Personal visits, Press reports means of
education
PSF is not an NGO but is using unconventional

• Alif Laila Book Bus Society ALBBS) has chosen to
  emphasize extracurricular activities as the basic
  thrust of its education programme. In doing so
  it has formalized these activities, brought into
  use their educational content and introduced a
  functional, income generating and skill building
  component into primary education which would
  make it more meaningful and relevant. Childrens
  library established by them also falls in the
  same category and cultivate reading, socializing
  and research habits among little children. For
  encouraging reading habits among adults The Asia
  Foundation (TAF) distributed box libraries to
  4200 Union Councils. The collection of books and
  distribution of libraries were successfully
  completed but the programme ran into problems at
  the utilization stage. This was a very forceful
  initiative and its adaptation after small pilot
  experiments is worth considering.
• Fundamental relationships
• There is increasing awareness among NGOs working
  for all types of literacy programs that the
  formation of parents committees and their
  involvement in monitoring the progress of
  students and educational institutions,
  interaction with the school administration and
  participation in decision making and
  responsibility sharing is vital for the progress
  of literacy work at the community level. Their
  involvement in planning and implementation of
  educational activities introduces an element of
  accountability in the system. In the district of
  Kohat community involvement in the administration
  of government run schools is also being
  experimented with. Institutionalization of such
  committees would provide a very firm basis for
  community involvement in education as well as
  development activities.
• Models of education
• A variety of models with a lower cost component,
  increased community participation and focus on
  low income and working children and adults are
  functioning at present. Although materials and
  methods of

13
teaching used here are old or have been imported
from the formal sector and teachers here have
little or no training yet these models offer the
possibility of financial sustainability and
replication on a large scale. Home schools for
children in low income areas and male and female
adult literacy centers in rural areas are run in
teachers home. At present these schools are
functioning in Baldia of Karachi, Organization
for Participatory Development OPD) of
Gujranwala), Hafizabad Literacy Promotion
Programme HLPP) of Hafizabad, ABES of Gujranwala
and YCHR of Lahore. Table 7 gives the details of
targets achieved by different NGOs working for
literacy. Table 7 Number of literacy
centres/home schools run by NGOs and estimate of
beneficiaries
NGO Project Area Target Group No. enrolled Total no. educated No. of centres
ABES Gujranwala Islamabad A A 6,000 3,106 131,818 2,500 300 227
ABMA Balochistan WC 300 N.A. 10
ALST Thatta C 2,100 N.A. 70
AMA Sargodha A - - 30
BLLF Pakistan WC - - 122
BS Islamabad A 300 - 23
Busti Karachi C 6,296 38,000 362
FPAP Islamabad A 2,100 N.A. 148
GG Islamabad Pakistan A A 1,293 - - 142,987 95 59
HELP Karachi C 40 100 3
HLPP Hafizabad A 16,750 N.A. 800
HSTWO Baldia C 756 - 31
OPD Gujranwala C 275 N.A. 11
PARD NWFP C 1,196 2,462 16
SCF Tharparkar A 273 150 7
YCHR Lahore C 600 N.A. 23
YMCA Azam Basti SC 20 N.A. 1
Total 17 - 43,059 315,517 2,349
AAdult CChildren WCWorking Children
SCStreet Childrn N.A.Not Applicable Source
NGO Reports, Personal Contact This includes
students of literacy classes each one teach one
scheme Figures are available only for the years
1987-91
14

• Factors that contributed to the origin and
  development of home schools were
• Limited resources of Katchi Abadis
• Shortage of regular schools
• Problems of admission
• Expensive education
• Use of children in contributing to family income
  UNICEF, pp.136).
• There are disagreements among professionals
  regarding the usefulness and sustainability of
  the home school model as well as quality of
  education provided by home schools. An
  alternative suggested is building one room, one
  teacher schools with a view to turn them into
  formal schools through incremental development
  and make them a part of the mainstream. This
  argument may prove superior to the idea of home
  schools in the long run. It is important to
  remember here that one room, one teacher schools
  and schools functioning in a teachers' house
  should not be confused with home school unless
  they plan to stay in the informal sector for
  ever.
• The WWF has been producing comic books on the
  environment for children. FPAP and some other
  groups have used puppet shows for community
  education on special issues. ABES is planning the
  use of newspapers for continuous education. A
  "kids teaching kids model has been used by Alif
  Laila, Rosary Hospital and National Farm Guide
  Council (NFGC). Special Education for the blind
  is offered by the Association of the Blind in
  Faisalabad .
• 11. Financial support
• Most of the non-formal school models have
  emphasized the need for and attained financial
  independence (See Table 8).
• Table 8 Financial management of different models
  of education

Type of Institution Name of NGO Cost of set up (Rs.) Cost per Student (Rs.) Teachers stipend/m (Rs.) Salary based on fee
Street Schools Lyari CBOs Under 1,000 None None Free Service
Home Schools Busti 3,000 None? 500 100
Literacy Centres ABES 2,500 650-750 350 33
Mosque PARD None 45.50 350 None
15
Schools
Primary School 1,500,000 2,000 1,185 None

• Source Reference Publications number 16, 19 and
  22 and NGO Documents
• These expenses are valid if at least 50 centres
  are opened. ? PEPAC, PP142
• In Baldia and some other schools initially a very
  low student fee is charged which covers the
  teacher's salary. This fee gradually increases
  over time in order to aid the programme in
  becoming self sustainable. In YCHR schools in
  Lahore teachers run nurseries at home for which
  they are provided training, inputs and marketing
  support. This offers them an additional source of
  income in view of their low salaries. In Panno
  Aqil, Sindh a regular government primary school
  has used tree plantation around the school
  boundary as a source of income for repair and
  maintenance. Grants for salary of teachers are
  used by ABES, HLPP and Islamabad Literacy
  Programme (ILP). Financial support by the
  community partially covers the teachers' salary
  in OPD. These schools aim to become self-reliant
  in the near future.
• Beneficiaries of literacy work
• Target beneficiaries of most of the literacy
  programs run by NGOs are children of school going
  age, school dropouts, working children and
  adults. Special emphasis in most of these
  programs is on female education. However,
  materials used are the ones used for primary
  schools in most of the children programs.
• Existing work in the NGO sector
• Table 9 describes the pattern of activities
  carried out for education by various NGOs in
  different parts of Pakistan. We see that
  different organizations have worked for
  developing different components of present
  education system in the country. Coordination of
  these efforts by these organizations and
  individuals can lead to a breakthrough in the
  quality and scale of Education in Pakistan.
• Table 9 Pattern of education work in NGO Sector

Project Focus NGO/Resource Person Work done
Literacy FECT, FPAP, BUSTI, ABES, SGA, HEAL, PARD, ALST, HLPP, OPD, PLPP, YCHR, IF, BLLF, FWCS, AMBA, MWS, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides Literacy centres established.
Teacher Training ABES, LGTI, TBG, TRC, AIE, General and special training
16
HSTWO, SAHE, CP, SPELT, RISE, PACC provided
Reading Materials TBG, WWF, ABES, LGTI, AMA Books, comics
Active Learning TBG, TRC, HEAL Modules developed
Publications TRC, WWF, CP Newsletter, Magazines
Awareness ILM, AI Publicity campaigns
Book Collection and Distribution TAF, RCMI Distributed books
Supporting Education AKES, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, OXFAM, SAP, SPO, CIDA, ODA, WB, TVO, USAID Provided funds, sponsored programmes
Unconventional Education ALBBS, AMA, ABT, CTC, SPDA
17
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