Keep Pakistan Learning

Dear friend,  

We hope you are well and the past few months have seen you through an eventful summer. Teach For Pakistan has been home to much exciting news, and we are all ready for the new academic year to begin in full-swing. June marked the end of the 2021 cohort’s two years in school as they graduated the Fellowship and began their journey as Alumni. While we were sad to part with Fellows, we are excited for the start of their Alumnihood and witnessing all they are capable of! In July, we prepared to welcome our newest addition to the Teach For Pakistan community - the 2023 cohort - for their six weeks of pre-placement training before they began teaching in schools. Our 2022 cohort concluded their first year of teaching in schools and prepared their strategies for the upcoming school year, informed by their learnings from the first year of the Fellowship.

Details of major highlights from the past quarter are outlined below. 

An ever-growing Alumni network! 

June marked the end of 32 second-year Fellows’ end of Fellowship and their induction into Teach For Pakistan’s Alumni network, now up to 215 leaders! This Alumni Induction Ceremony was particularly special as we got together to celebrate the 2021 cohort, who entered the program at a time when the public school system was experiencing fatigue post-pandemic, and embodied the resilience and courage needed at the time, reminding us once again of the hope needed to partake in this work. 

This group of extraordinary educational leaders taught more than 3,000 students across 22 public schools in Islamabad throughout the course of their Fellowship. In just their first 8 months of teaching, their students grew on average by 1.74 academic years, a remarkable feat considering students had just gotten back to learning after extended school closures on account of COVID-19! With every intention of continuing their impact, the 2021 cohort designed and executed 18 Community Partnership Projects, meant as solutions to systemic barriers that obstruct students’ learning and growth. 

The highlight of the Induction Ceremony was the Leadership Breakthroughs - brief talks delivered by graduating Fellows and students, focusing on multiple areas of work undertaken throughout the Fellowship to improve student growth. We heard from both Fellows and students recounting their stories of triumph in the face of obstacles blocking their path to achievement. These Breakthroughs are a testimony to how this cohort not only understood but embodied what it means to work as a collective in the pursuit of something greater.

The full playlist for these talks can be found here.

To commemorate Fellows’ achievements, their parents and students also attended the event, and witnessed first-hand the culmination of their hard work over the past two years along with envisioning what their futures would look like - inevitably bright and hopeful. This Ceremony was a reminder that though the Fellowship is designed for only two years, the Alumni movement is a life-long commitment to the promise of ending educational inequity in Pakistan. This is only the start of witnessing how these leaders will expand on their journeys in a multitude of ways, and we are honored to have been a part of how that journey started. 

Bringing more leaders into the system

As we said goodbye to our 2021 cohort, we prepared to welcome Teach For Pakistan’s 10th Fellowship Cohort into the program! The 2023 cohort is a group of 68 exceptional individuals, selected from a total of 3,319 applications. The past quarter has been spent in the preparation and execution of Training Institute for the 2023 cohort, a six-week intensive pre-placement training to prepare Fellows for their time in schools. 

Throughout Training Institute, Fellows were grounded in TFP’s vision and theory of change and trained in pedagogical sessions on how to build classroom practices with the intention to improve student outcomes. Fellows are also required to take part in an immersive Summer School experience where they apply their learnings from Institute in the classrooms, and get a taste of what it’s like to do the real thing!

Back to School! 

94 second-year Fellows have spent summer break preparing for their return back to school for what will be the last year of their Fellowship. As schools closed for summer break in May, these Fellows came together to reflect on their journey so far and articulate their hopes and aspirations for the second year. Fellows also used their end-of-year assessment data to audit progress in their first year and will be developing classroom strategies and practice informed from this data to improve student outcomes. They have resumed school in the first week of August, and we eagerly anticipate what their last year of the Fellowship will shape up to be. 

Your support has enabled our Fellows’ journeys till now, and will continue to sustain the work they do in the future. We are excited not only to witness all our Fellows and Alumni will do in the future, but are thrilled to go on this journey with you as our most loyal supporters and friends.