ITA is a well-known organisation working across Pakistan in the education sector. Their Chalo Parho Barho (CPB) programme is an accelerated learning programme targeting children between the ages of 6 and 12 years, who have dropped out of school or have never been enrolled, as well as those in school who are at risk of dropping out.
CPB helps out-of-school children (OOSC) develop knowledge and skills in Urdu (or Sindhi/Pashto), English and mathematics to enter formal school in a grade appropriate to their age. Furthermore, CPB helps ensure that children in school in grades 3 to 5, who are at risk of dropping out, gain grade appropriate knowledge and skills so that they stay in school.
Using data on enrolment and learning outcomes from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and elsewhere, ITA works with the government to identify and select low-performing districts and tehsils to take part in the programme. Villages with government schools are identified and then a household survey is conducted in the catchment areas of all government schools to identify OOSC. ‘Baithaks’ or community meetings are held to disseminate results of the household survey and convince the community of the need to send OOSC to schools. The learning camps are arranged for a duration of 45 to 60 days in three 15-day cycles of intensive learning, facilitated by a paraprofessional teacher recruited locally who is trained in the CPB accelerated methodology. They are trained to use intensive, structured routines and specially designed CPB materials to teach literacy and numeracy to help children leapfrog learning. After the completion of the camps, the CPB team works with schools and families to enrol out-of-school children in their local school.
Contact: Sahar Saeed at sahar.saeed@itacec.org
