 Bin Qasim Town is considered as a Rural Area of Karachi. The situation of education in the Bin Qasin Town is alarming. The total population of the Bin Qasim Town during 1998 census was 316,684, which is estimated to be almost double in 2008. However according to the Ministry of Education only 55,000 children are enrolled in primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools of Bin Qasim Town.
Besides the lack of access, the issue of quality education also persists in majority of the government schools. There is lack of proper and regular in-service training mechanism for the teachers of government schools. In result most of the teachers follow the traditional teaching methods of rote learning. L.D. Hayes (1987) in his article The Crisis of Education in Pakistan illustrates “In majority of Pakistani schools the rote learning is a common practice and teachers mainly rely on lecture methods. There is dearth of children’s participation in teaching and learning activities”. Hence there is rigorous need for improving the quality of education in government schools through a comprehensive need based support program.
This proposal presents the suggested activities Rotary’s Gulshan-e-Hadeed club would like to initiate in order to improve the quality of education in schools of Bin Qasim Town.
Phase 1: Needs Assessment
In order to assess the existing situation of schools a needs assessment consisting of various activities such as meetings with the stakeholders and school survey will be carried out by the members with the support of the government education department.
1. Meetings with Education Officers:
2. Meetings with Educationists, Intellectuals and Community Organziations:
3. Baseline Survey
A baseline survey will be carried by a team of enumerators in order to know the existing situation of schools and their needs.
Phase 2: Implementation of Activities
4. Teachers’ Training
Teachers training is said to be the most important activity for the school improvement. Teachers’ continuous professional development helps them to perform better for the quality education in their respective school. Teachers not only improve their content knowledge but also learn new and innovative methods of teaching. Training sensitizes teachers to become the role model for their children and helps to develop enthusiasm and eagerness to adopt new and innovative teaching techniques.
The training for the teachers of Bin Qasim Town should be a regular activity and should be done at various levels.
5. Awareness Raising and Community Mobilization:
Once teachers are trained and they start teaching in an improved way through the various innovative methods of teaching for quality education improvement, the awareness raising and community mobilization activities will be introduced for the active participation of local communities and parents to support children for better education. The area of Bin Qasim Town is mainly occupied by people from low socio-economic backgrounds. The major reason for low enrollment in schools and low literacy rate in the area is due to poverty and illiteracy. The local community and parents can be sensitized towards importance of education through various activities suggested below;
Strengthening the SMCs
School Management Committees (SMCs) are formed at all government schools through an official notification. The purpose of forming these SMCs is to involve local communities and parents for the betterment of education. But unfortunately most of the SMCs are not active and they only become active when they receive some funds. The performance of SMCs can be improved through their training. Selected SMC members will be trained on how to effectively run SMC and what are their roles and responsibilities as the members of SMC.
Seminars
Seminars will be arranged to mobilize parents and community members towards the importance of education and to get their cooperation to increase the enrollment in the schools. Government officials and educationist and intellectuals will be invited in these seminars also as guest speakers.
Budget:
All the above suggested activities need financial and human resources. A tentative budget of PK Rupees 1 million (approx USD 15000) is proposed for the smooth implementation of the planned activities.
Further details are provided in the accompanying document and may also be requested over email.
Thank you.
RC of Karachi Gulshan-e-Hadeed | 
