Foundational Learning Policy Implementation Mission: Sindh, KP & Balochistan
In December 2024, the Pakistan Foundational Learning (PFL) Hub conducted its second Foundational Learning Mission to the provinces. The aim of this visit was to provide support to provincial governments as they finalise their foundational learning policies, and move towards implementation. The PFL Hub shared key lessons from the experience of the Federal Foundational Learning Policy implementation (see here), as well as research on the best available teaching and learning materials, teacher training and assessment. The team met with senior government officials in Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and discussed the status of their provincial Foundational Learning Policies (Punjab visit planned for January 2025).
Children at ECE Centre, Government Girls School Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Shah Rasool Colony, Karachi
Key takeaways:
All provinces are making progress on their Foundational Learning policies. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has notified its policy. Sindh and Punjab are awaiting notification, while the Balochistan draft is nearing completion.
Implementation is a challenge. The drafting of the policy is an important first step, but provincial governments need support to implement these policies and bring to action. In particular more focus is needed on how to implement the core areas that will make learning happen: teacher training, materials and assessment.
Promoting learning in children’s mother tongue is key to achieve success but implementation is complex and costly, especially in multi-grade and multi-lingual settings.
For effective implementation, it is essential to improve monitoring mechanisms and accountability. In Balochistan, Minister Rahila Durrani is leading efforts to digitise data for tracking attendance and performance.
Education departments are eager to move beyond short-term, project-based approaches. Such approaches often divert focus from long-term goals to meeting project-specific targets. This was a major concern in Sindh, Balochistan, and Karachi.
There is appetite for research and support on foundational learning at the provincial level. Education departments requested PFL Hub’s assistance with teacher training, developing phonics courses, and research on mother tongue instruction.
Sindh:
Karachi: The team began their day with a meeting with Dr. Fouzia Khan, Chief Executive Advisor in the Curriculum Wing of the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) and the lead of the Sindh Foundational Learning Unit. The discussion centred on the status of the Sindh Early Childhood Care and Education & Foundational Learning (ECCE&FL) Policy and the need to adopt a long-term, system-strengthening approach to ensure sustained improvements in foundational learning. Following this, the team met key stakeholders in the Reform Support Unit (RSU), who commended the PFL Hub’s work as integral to the implementation of the Sindh Policy.
The team also visited the ECE center in the Government Girls School Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Shah Rasool Colony, where we engaged with the head teacher, teachers, and leaders from private organisations collaborating with the school. We discussed the importance of providing children with healthy learning environments to promote early learning. The team was inspired by the teachers’ proactive efforts to mobilise resources from the private sector to support the ECE center.
Meeting with the Reform Support Unit (RSU), Government of Sindh
Visit to ECE center in Karachi
Visit to ECE center in Karachi
Balochistan:
Quetta: Our first engagement in Quetta was with the Project Management Unit (PMU) at the Balochistan School Education Department. After an overview of the Balochistan Foundational Learning Policy and its notification status, the PFL Hub presented its recent mapping on FL learning and teaching materials as well as discussed the importance of teacher training for improving learning outcomes.
Following this, the team met with Mr Abdul Salam Achakzai, Special Secretary Education in Balochistan, where we discussed government priorities and the importance of extra-curricular activities to improve children’s skills. Finally, we had the pleasure to meet with Ms Rahila Durrani, Minister of Education in Balochistan. The Minister discussed her priorities, including digitising data to improve monitoring, and talked about key challenges that children in Balochistan face.
At the end of our stay in Quetta, we visited the Government Girls High School, Railway Colony. The school caters to more than 3,000 students and employs around 300 teachers. The head teacher and teachers highlighted the achievements of their students and showed us their facilities as well as described the initiatives that they are undertaking in health, nutrition, and environment awareness in the classrooms.
PFL Hub team and Project Management Unit (PMU) team
Meeting with Special Secretary for Education Balochistan, Mr Abdul Salam Achakzai
Meeting with Minister of Education, Balochistan, Ms. Rahila Durrani
ECE teacher demonstrates foundational learning teaching material used in classrooms, Quetta
Meeting with teachers and head teachers at the Government Girls High School, Railway Colony, in Quetta
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Peshawar: The PFL Hub started their visit to KP by meeting with the Technical Working Group leading the development of the KP Foundational Learning Policy on the 16th of December, 2024. The KP team gave an on overview of their FL policy and shared initial plans for implementation. Following this, the PFL Hub shared their experiences and learnings from the implementation of the Federal Foundational Learning Policy in Islamabad. Following presentations, the team had a detailed discussion about the technicalities and challenges of implementing the KP Foundational Learning Policy and ways for the department to identify priority areas to focus on.
Next, the PFL Hub met with the Secretary, Elementary & Secondary Education Department (E&SED), Mr Masood Ahmad, and Special Secretary, Mr. Qaiser Alam. It was encouraging to see senior leadership committing to championing foundational learning and leading policy implementation in the province. The Special Secretary declared he would have monthly stocktakes to monitor implementation, and committed to improving teacher training and assessment for foundational learning. The PFL Hub was pleased to offer support, especially with Qaiser Alam sb’s request to develop a foundational learning teacher guide to be disseminated to primary school teachers across the province.
Project Director, PFL Hub Sam Wilson present foundational learning materials mapping to Secretary, Elementary & Secondary Education Department (E&SED), Mr Masood Ahmad.
The PFL Hub team with Qaiser Alam, Special Secretary ESED, the KP ASPIRE team, and the Directorate of Curriculum and Teacher Education
