Dubai Cares plans ‘quality learning’ project in Pakistan

Top Stories

Dubai Cares plans ‘quality learning’ project in Pakistan

The three-year programme will directly benefit 385,800 school children across the Sindh and Punjab regions as well as two regions in Baluchistan.

By (Wam)

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Thu 27 Mar 2014, 1:02 AM

Last updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 5:27 PM

Dubai Cares on Tuesday announced a new Dh17 million (USD 4,614,533) holistic quality learning programme in Pakistan at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition (DIHAD) 2014. The UAE-based philanthropic organisation, which seeks to tackle poverty through education in developing countries, will implement the programme in partnership with Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), a long-standing collaborator in Pakistan.

Pakistani children who have benefited from one of the Dubai Cares’ programmes. — Supplied photos

The new programme, which aligns with and supports the UN Secretary-General’s five-year ‘Global Education First Initiative’, will promote education transitions from pre-primary to primary school for children, especially girls, and provide accelerated learning for thousands of out-of-school children. The three-year programme will directly benefit 385,800 school children across the Sindh and Punjab regions as well as two regions in Baluchistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Tariq Al Gurg, Dubai Cares CEO, said: “Every child should have the opportunity to achieve personal, professional and social success. At Dubai Cares, we believe that the journey begins with strong primary education. This new programme in Pakistan focuses on the critical aspect of helping pre-primary age children, especially girls and those from vulnerable groups, build up their foundational learning skills so that they are not at a disadvantage once they reach primary school level. This in turn will help them in their transition to higher educational levels, giving them a platform to hone their talents and become national assets.”

Pakistan has made steady progress in ensuring universal education for its young citizens over the years; however, it still faces severe challenges in meeting the targets for universal primary education set under the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All programme by the United Nations.

New holistic programme

The 2013 Global Monitoring Report (Unesco) ranks Pakistan second in terms of the number of out-of-school children.

The country is also dealing with low female literacy levels, compounded by low girls’ enrolment ratios at the primary level (overall 77% and 68% in rural areas). In addition, the educational system in Pakistan is crippled by poor standards in curriculum, resources and infrastructure, across both the private and public sectors. This programme will build on the successes of Dubai Cares’ two existing programmes in Pakistan, both of which place strong emphasis on gender equality and the provision of safe learning environments.

The programme will establish the framework for holistic experiential learning, support girl’s education and promote children’s transition from pre-primary to primary education. Additionally, the programme will train teachers in hard-to-access areas, through a “Teachers Without Frontier” model and generate a culture of reading to improve learning and citizenship across Pakistan’s schools. From a monitoring and assessment perspective, the programme will leverage and build consensus on measuring learning among the global and national educational community through the Learning Metrics Task Force.

Dubai Cares will be working with Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), which promotes education in Pakistan with the aim of facilitating human and social transformation, for the roll-out of the programme. Commenting on the partnership with ITA, Al Gurg said: “ITA has consistently proved its determination as a local agency with strong organisation, advocacy and lobbying skills.

The organisation was instrumental in gaining greater buy-in and commitment from the government of Pakistan for our previous programmes. Its involvement will ensure that our programme is completely aligned with the educational needs of the region and can be transferred to the full ownership of the government in three years’ time.”

Baela Raza Jamil, Director of Programmes at ITA, said: “Following successful programmes in Pakistan since 2008, in 2014 Dubai Cares made a bolder commitment to promote education in the most vulnerable areas of Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan.

This programme is both relevant and innovative, keeping abreast of accelerated progress towards 2015 goals and beyond, ensuring a focus on girls’ education and capacity enhancement of female teachers in remote areas.

The programme will reach 3,770 schools and 205,200 communities and train almost 12,800 teachers. ITA is honoured to be working with Dubai Cares and the Government of Pakistan to march forward with scalable programmes.”

In addition to the announcement, Dubai Cares also established a significant presence at DIHAD 2014, leading industry discussions and showcasing learnings from successful programmes.

The 10th edition of DIHAD focused on developing Dubai as a philanthropic hub by bringing together humanitarian players and agencies from around the globe for discussions on industry best practices in humanitarian and development assistance as well as to explore collaborations on key projects.

“Dubai Cares is a strong supporter of DIHAD as it promotes powerful synergies between agencies in knowledge-sharing as well as implementation. Located at the crossroads of the East and the West, Dubai is in a favourable position to deliver humanitarian aid to hotspots around the world and DIHAD provides us with a platform to plan out how we can marshal resources from around the globe and deploy them in the best possible manner,” concluded Al Gurg.


More news from