Pakistan—Transforming Education in Pakistan (TEP)

The Transforming Education in Pakistan (TEP) programme managed a political advocacy and media campaign in Pakistan to ensure that parents and communities demand good-quality education and that the government takes tangible steps to provide free quality education to all children between the ages of 5 and 16. The campaign, Alif Ailaan, worked through six core strands—political and government, media, research, digital/social media, civil society and alliances.

Alif Ailaan embedded specific education issues into the discourse, set a precedent of data-informed journalism and reporting on education, pioneered a series of ground-breaking publications, and successfully lobbied for the government to research, calculate, and publish a nationally accepted number for out-of-school children between the ages of 5 and 16. The campaign also focused on lobbying for and getting key stakeholders to demand quality learning available in the classrooms of government schools, which are the only schools available to the poorest children.

Sample Activities

• Bring parents, politicians and education providers together to solve problems collectively.
• Make sure parents know and understand that a quality education free of cost is the Constitutional right of every child.
• Lobby politicians and policy makers at the highest levels to make education a national priority.
• Build alliances with grassroots organisations and civil society to campaign more effectively for education reform.
• Support provincial education departments in carrying out activities that promote education for all.
• Provide financial support to partner organisations working to address education-related issues.
• Conduct research to better understand the problems Pakistan faces in the field of education and to find solutions.

Select Results

• Wrote, designed, and published a three-volume document titled “Powering Pakistan for the 21st Century.” The document established the importance of maths and science for a country’s progress and an individual’s cognitive development in the first volume, demonstrated the state of maths and science in Pakistan currently and the contributing factors, and engaged practitioners in policy, maths and science, and education to come up with comprehensive and specific recommendations to transform education in Pakistan.
• Organised a series of School Management Council conventions in 14 constituencies across Pakistan to engage parents.
• Created alliances around education themes: maths and science education, government education finance, and data.
• Built a Facebook following of more than 3 million engaged citizens.