USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project – Quarterly Progress Report (April 01 - June 30, 2016)

The project is being implemented in collaboration with the provincial and regional departments of education in Pakistan. PRP's objectives are to provide teacher trainings, policy reforms, and community support for reading in Pakistan. PRP's component 1 focused on phase 2 refresher trainings for cohort 1 teachers, mentors, and academic supervisors. In this reporting period, PRP trained or oriented 4 reading specialists, 30 mentors, 62 academic supervisors, and 2,097 teachers. The maximum number of Teacher Inquiry Group (TIG) meetings conducted in cohort 1 districts was 13, while a maximum of 10 TIG meetings were held in cohort 2 districts. Mentors and School Support Associates (SSAs) conducted a total of 8,532 and 8,809 visits to PRP intervention schools, respectively. PRP's package of Teaching Learning Material (TLM) for grade 1 reached cohort 2 schools in this quarter. The Urdu grade 1 material (weeks 1-16) and Sindhi grade 1 material (weeks 1-8) were developed and distributed to schools. PRP made significant progress in material development, finalizing Sindhi TIG modules (11-18) and sending them for printing. Urdu grade 1 material (weeks 17-24) and Sindhi (weeks 9-24) were delivered to a design firm, and grade 2 material content was developed in Urdu and Sindhi and approved by Material Review Committees (MRCs). Under the Information Communication Technology component, PRP reached 13,467 beneficiaries in cohort 1 and 2 districts through informational text messages. Development of year 2 Virtual Mentoring Videos (VMVs) in Urdu and Sindhi was completed, and content was prepared for dissemination. PRP's scholarship program completed installments for 2,186 students, including 2,009 Associate Degree in Education and 177 B.Ed. (Hons.) ongoing scholarship recipients. PRP's component 2 key achievements included the approval of reading standards by the Gilgit-Baltistan government and the approval of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) strategic plan by the AJK government. Capacity building workshops on development of early grade reading assessment tools were completed in AJK, Balochistan, GB, ICT, and KP. Accreditation orientation workshops for 63 Teacher Training Institutes (TTIs) were also completed. Two Provincial Steering Committee (PSC) meetings and three Provincial Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings were held in this quarter. Under Public Private Partnership (PPP), a meeting was held with the Japan Embassy, and they agreed to provide vehicles for MBL in ICT and KP regions. USAID and PRP met with the Pakistan Science Foundation to explore ways of working together, and 2,550 books were donated by the Rotary Club Karachi for PRP target schools in Lasbela, Balochistan. PRP's component 3 advertised its Complementary Reading Program (CRP) grants funding opportunity under the theme of 'tutoring'. A total of 64 CRP applications were received from 6 regions, including AJK, Balochistan, GB, ICT, KP, and Sindh.