Keep Pakistan Learning

Dear Partners,

We hope you’re all having a wonderful summer so far. Thank you for your support in enabling Teach For Pakistan to grow its movement and expand its impact so that for our children, learning never stops, through COVID-19 and beyond. Through your generosity and support, our Fellows have continued to raise the bar of quality education for their children each year and have inspired and enabled their students to dream bigger and bigger.

Growing the movement of Alumni leaders and champions of educational reform!

After completing their incredible work in schools, our 2020 and third-year Fellows were inducted into our ever-growing Alumni network. This community now comprises 183 individuals that are committed to ending educational inequity in Pakistan, and working towards building a future where all of our children become fully loving, thinking, and engaged citizens of the country. 

To celebrate the culmination of Fellows’ transformational work in and outside classrooms and mark the beginning of a lifelong journey of educational reform, Teach For Pakistan conducted the Alumni Induction Ceremony. The event was attended by Alumni from previous cohorts, government stakeholders, and the loved ones of all those graduating. During the ceremony, we heard from 2020 Fellow, Iman who spoke of her memories in school and with her students, of Fellows who worked tirelessly during multiple COVID-related school closures during the first year of their Fellowship, and most of all she spoke of the hope and possibility that Teach For Pakistan ignites in every single person that comes into contact with this program.

One of Iman’s studentsalso reflected on the two exciting years she spent with her teacher. She spoke of gaining confidence in herself, trust that she could achieve what she set her mind to, and finding agency in her own voice through the help of the Fellows she was taught by. Nadia reminded everyone in the room what Teach For Pakistan stands for: nurturing the idea of hope, rallying for change, and cultivating dreams and visions to one day become possible and achievable for all.

“They (Fellows) taught us that once you make a decision, nothing is impossible, and that the impossible can be turned possible with the will to do so. Today I can proudly say that I know what my rights are, and how to speak up and stand up for those rights.”

Fellow Iman's student

Bringing hope to 110+ more classrooms: Training and Placement of the 2022 cohort!

This year, Teach For Pakistan has recruited and selected its largest-ever cohort of inspired young men and women who are passionate to transform learning outcomes for students across Islamabad’s public schools. This cohort of 110+ Fellows is also the most diverse one as of yet, hailing from over fifty cities across Pakistan and 39 universities globally. We are confident that through this diversity, our movement of leaders will partake in educational reform across the board.

Since June 2022, the newly inducted Fellows have been engaged in a six-week intensive training meant that will prepare them for school placements starting September. The flagship Summer Training Institute involves growing Fellows’ understanding of systemic leadership and building the pedagogical skills that will enable them to affect transformational impact in their classrooms, schools, and communities.

Back-to-school: 2021 Fellows return to kickstart the second Fellowship year

This August, 34 Fellows from the 2021 cohort kickstarted the second year of their Fellowship with exciting energy and determination. They were welcomed by their equally excited students after a couple months of summer break. The Fellows excitedly prepared their ambitious plans to build on the current academic achievements of their students. 

This year, the second year Fellows will work even closely with their students and particularly their communities. Fellows work closely with parents and community members to deepen their understanding of the barriers to education inequity in their community, and create sustainable solutions that will help students become independant learners. This will be used to enable Fellows to design, plan, and implement said solutions in a sustainable and strucured "Community Partnership Project". The Teach For Pakistan team will train Fellows on how to create effective project design strategies, measure and learn from data, and fundraise for their projects. 

Finding confidence and self-belief!

Fellows Mahnur Kanwar and Ayesha Sheikh teach ~200 bright and inspired sixth grade students at a school in Islamabad's rural subsector, Sihala. They planned an interactive and engaging session with their students with the aim of encouraging independent thought and collaborative project planning and presentation. The Fellows organized a poster-making competition for their students to build their analytical,, presentation and public-speaking skills. Their students worked in groups to think through ideas important to them, create posters, and present them in front of their classmates. Mahnur and Ayesha were awe-inspired to witness their students thoughtfully create and present their ideas and find the confidence in themselves to do so in a structured way. 

A new cohort of young female scientists in the making!

Fellow Nishat Maryam teaches brilliant seventh and eighth graders at a public school in Islamabad. Her students are bright and passionate to study STEM subjects and pursue STEM careers later in life. Nishat vowed to work towards this during her Fellowship. In order to make the world of science real for her young students, Nishat invited two female mechatronics engineers to her classroom to inspire them. Following this session, Nishat noticed an incredible and renewed zeal in her students during science lessons. Her students now come to her sharing that they want to become doctors, researchers, biologists, and physicists in the future! 

Links:

• Student speaker at the Alumni Induction Ceremony