Investing in the future

An exciting new social enterprise aims to eliminate educational inequity in Pakistan through the localised adaptation of a model pioneered by British and American programmes.

Teach for Pakistan (TFP) hopes to place dedicated teachers in schools where children do not necessarily have access to quality education. The organisation partners with Teach for All (TFA), a collaboration between the long-standing US-based initiative Teach for America and its newer British counterpart Teach First.

Improving access

Khadija Bakhtiar, TFP's director of programmes, says the South Asian country is one of many in the world with uneven educational levels, where access to schools can be limited and the instruction that is delivered can vary widely in terms of quality.

"Children who are born into poverty never have the chance to break out of that poverty, because the kind of education opportunities they have access to — if at all — are not really good enough to enable them to improve their lives," she says.

"A child's socio-economic background will determine whether or not they go to school in the first place, and if they [go], what kind of education they receive. Will it be an education that actually makes a difference in their lives, or will they leave school after fifth grade and still be functionally illiterate without even basic numeracy skills?" Bakhtiar says this inequity must be addressed. "A child should have the chance to break the connection between poverty and bad education — the two should not be linked," she says.

Sponsored by The Aman Foundation — a self-funded not-for-profit-trust based in Pakistan — TFP is set to place the first 40 teachers in institutions this August. Farida Zuberi, Executive Director of TFP, says the organisation will begin with under-resourced schools in the city of Karachi.

"We are working with government and low-income private schools that need the kind of teaching support we are able to offer through our programme," she says.

Making an impact

Bakhtiar explains that TFP teaching fellowships are different from regular teaching positions. "What we're trying to do essentially is to recruit outstanding graduates and young professionals to teach for two years in low-income schools in Pakistan," she says.

"We hope this will have two impacts; first, of course, within the classroom environment itself, [where] they will be able to help [students] do much better in terms of school achievement and potentially help them access better opportunities in their lives".

Secondly, she says, these teachers will have a far longer-term impact on the entire teaching system. "The experience and insight they gain in this highly challenging school environment will make them leaders for educational reform for the rest of their lives," she explains, adding that they expect teachers to stay connected to the movement and be involved throughout their lives, even after they graduate from the TFP fellowship programme.

Accordingly, TFP requires that all applicants are Pakistani or of Pakistani origin to ensure as much as possible that alumni remain involved with the organisation. "As much as [TFP] is about education and eliminating inequity, it is just as much about Pakistan," she says. "So we need people who are invested in what happens to Pakistan."

Bakhtiar says alumni could contribute to TFP in many ways once their teaching stints are complete. Among these are policy making and implementation, driving corporate social responsibility decisions, the advocacy of educational reforms through media and the arts — and of course, demonstrating that change is possible from within the system by showing what kind of results are possible.

Perfect opportunity

She says there are plenty of reasons why the programme should resonate with Pakistanis. "It's a perfect opportunity to give back to your country and your society, to be involved in a meaningful way, and a lot of young people in Pakistan today are very passionate about what's happening around them," she explains.

"Secondly, it's the beginning of a career and it's a great place to start your career, because it gives you certain skills that are transferable to any other field. [The fellows] will perfect their leadership skills and take all of the competencies they have built with them; whether they stay in education as leaders or move into business policy, this will always set them apart. And, of course, we are in the process of making relationships with top employers and graduate schools who will recognise TFP as valuable work experience."

Although TFP is in its infancy, the team has high hopes for the programme's development over the next ten years. "Right now, we are starting from Karachi, but we want to make sure we are physically present in all regions of Pakistan and are represented nationally," says Bakhtiar.

"In about 10 or 15 years' time, we want to make sure we have created that critical path of alumni who are really starting to change the debate on education in Pakistan; this is in some way similar to the impact that has been created in other countries, such as America, where alumni are now beginning to shape the debate on specific areas of education in a big way.

"If our alumni start to have an impact of that scale in Pakistan, and [can] guide where the debate is going, that will have been an achievement for us and the effects of that can shape policy, which is what we're looking for."