In Pakistan, a large number of students drop out of school after completing their primary education. One of the key reasons for drop out is the non-availability of middle and high schools nearby. In many cases, students have to travel long distances to reach middle and secondary schools. This results in a significant number of children, especially girls, dropping out of school.
STRIDE is an innovative model of context-specific local planning, financing, and service delivery. It uses location and context-specific ‘actionable evidence’ to develop Union Council (UC) level plans for establishing afternoon secondary schools in existing primary schools and for providing transport facilities (bicycles, rickshaw, van, bus, and tonga etc.) that help ensure young people make the transition from primary to secondary education and stay at school. STRIDE builds on I-SAPS’s experience in local planning, financing, and service delivery in the education sector.
Community engagement and mobilisation is also an integral part of STRIDE, as this helps address the prevailing social and cultural attitudes and challenges around schooling. Through social mobilization, STRIDE targets teachers, students, parents, government officials and influential locals, in order to create an environment for acceptance of the proposed solutions under STRIDE.
STRIDE is currently being implemented in close collaboration with the education departments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in four districts: Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh in Punjab, and Kohat and Swabi in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Contact: Abdullah Alam at aalam@i-saps.org
