USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project – Annual Progress Report (October 2017 to September 2018)

The project operates in target provinces and regions across Pakistan, with the goal of reaching 1.3 million student beneficiaries of grade one and two. During the reporting year, PRP achieved its project target of reaching out to 1.3 million student beneficiaries of grade one and two. The project added 506,992 new students of grade one and two during FY 2017-18, who continue to receive reading interventions through PRP-trained teachers. By the end of the reporting year, the total number of students benefiting from PRP was recorded as 1,377,913 grade one and two students across Pakistan. PRP's professional development model includes face-to-face training for teachers, with a 5-day training in the first year and a 3-day refresher in the second year. In addition, the project arranges condensed trainings for newly transferred or inducted grade 1 and 2 teachers to PRP schools. During the reporting year, PRP trained a total of 6,983 teachers in Cohort 3 districts and 986 new teachers in Cohort 1 and 2 districts. In total, PRP trained 24,299 teachers as of September 30, 2018. Mentors, who are selected government academic staff and teachers themselves, play an important role in building the capacity of teachers as effective reading instructors. PRP trained 3,852 government officials, including 746 mentors, 211 academic supervisors, and 2,895 head teachers in Cohort 3 districts. By the end of the reporting year, the project trained a total of 10,166 mentors/government officials. PRP continued delivering Reading Learning Materials (RLM) to students, teachers, and relevant education officials during the reporting year. These materials include daily reading lesson plans, workbooks, big books, level readers, flashcards, syllable charts, library books, manuals for face-to-face trainings/orientations, TIG modules, and tablets. PRP distributed 988,327 copies of RLM to mentors, academic supervisors, teachers, students, and other government officials during the reporting year. Since the inception of the project, the project distributed 5,254,725 copies. Classroom-based corner libraries are a part of PRP interventions in schools. Under this initiative, the project provides 50 grade-level story books to each school to help promote reading among children. During the reporting year, PRP established a total of 605 corner libraries. At the end of the reporting year, PRP established a total of 8,686 corner libraries altogether across the intervention schools. Under component 2, 13 policy initiatives pertaining to the promotion and integration of reading were finalized by the provincial governments in collaboration with PRP. Reading instruction time was integrated into the revised Schemes of Studies in ICT, GB, and Sindh. Reading standards were integrated into the Urdu Language Curriculum for grades 1-5 in AJK, Balochistan, ICT, and KP. In Sindh, the Directorate of Curriculum, Assessment, and Research (DCAR) revised the curriculum of Urdu and Sindhi and processed it for final endorsement. Subsequent to the revision of the Urdu language curriculum, textbook boards in AJK, Balochistan, ICT, KP, and Sindh started developing the Urdu language textbooks for grade 1-5 based on the new curriculum. PRP's Public-Private Partnership (PPP) component finalized MOUs with three organizations for printing, distribution, and utilization of the PRP Reading Learning Materials with their own resources. These MOUs with the Human Development Foundation, Ghazali Education Trust, and Society for Community Strengthening and Promotion of Education in Balochistan will benefit around 49,000 grade one and two students in over 1,000 schools. The PPP component also provided over 2,000 books donated by the Rotary Pakistan Literacy Mission to the Government Elementary Colleges and Bureau of Curriculum in Balochistan.