26 Aug 2008 - When a massive earthquake struck northern Pakistan in October 2005, one of the casualties was an education for thousands of Pakistani young people. In the remote mountainous area of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), students and teachers were particularly hard hit. Before the quake, the Government Girls Primary School in the town of Punjool had only two teachers for the entire student body. After the quake, one of the teachers, Naheed, found it impossible to get to the school because of a six-hour commute over badly damaged winding roads. The remaining teacher was unable to keep the school running by herself and many students simply stopped coming.
But now, thanks to an IRC project called Revitalizing, Innovating, Strengthening Education (RISE), the school in Punjool is again up and running. As part of the program, local parent and teacher councils made up of teachers and local community members meet—after receiving training from RISE staff members—to devise a program to improve their schools. The committee pays equal attention to issues of infrastructure, teacher training and curriculum.
The council at the Government Girls Primary School decided to solve the problem of its missing teacher. After hearing about Naheed’s travel problems and learning that the government maintains no housing facilities for its employees, it decided to provide Naheed with free accommodation near the school at its own expense.
As a result, not only is Naheed back teaching every day but the parent and teacher council has shown that it can effectively resolve school problems.
Naheed is enthusiastic about the council and grateful that it reached out to her. “I am so happy the council solved my problem. Now I can spend time preparing for lessons, and thinking of ways to implement our school improvement plan.”
