BRAC Pre-Primary Education in Hard- to- Reach Areas of Pakistan

Education Emergency in Pakistan 9.2 million children are out of school (UNICEF, 2014) Ranked 106 out of 113 countries as per EFA Development Index (Unesco global monitoring report 2015)

Literacy in Pakistan (Population over 10 years old) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – 52% 44% 62% 60%

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Risks and Difficulties Geography – bordering Afghanistan Conflict and violence in the area Distrust of NGOs

Attitudes Towards Education Conservative communities: Low priority for girls’ education Rights of women are suppressed Employment of women, especially outside of the local community is discouraged

History of anti-educational incidents in KPK 22 schools bombed (mostly girls’ schools) between in Swabi Shooting of Malala Yousafzai in 2012 in Mingora, Swat The Peshawar School Shootings in December 2014

Early Childhood Education Project 1 year of pre-primary education 200 ECE schools set up Targeted poor, marginalised, rural and out of school children in 3 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Enrolled 6,000 children aged Particular focus on girls from poor communities Encouraged community involvement and support for pre-primary education Provided local women with training and jobs as teachers

Focus Inclusive early childhood education (gender, disability, ethnicity) Child centred joyful learning School readiness Drive up primary enrolment

How did we do this? Schools within the community Engaging women from the same community as teachers and staff Community consultation Sensitive to cultural norms Involvement of parents Active & effective school management committees Keeping a low profile (no signboards) MoU with KPK provincial government

Results Children developed a basic knowledge of alphabet and numbers Better social, emotional and behavioural outcomes ECE graduates are active, confident and outperforms their peers in government primary schools (midterm review) 93% retention of students in grade 2 from 1 st cohort

Lessons learned Engaging female teachers from the same community Community acceptance and buy in Girls’ access to education through pre- primary schools Cooperation of local government

C4D Initiative Continue to promote girls’ education in the wider community to foster long-term change in attitudes towards girls’ education in KPK