Sindh Early Learning Enhancement through Classroom Transformation

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Addressing the priority of reducing Learning Poverty in Pakistan and Sindh, the project aims to improve reading skills of early grade primary students and support student retention in primary schools, in select districts. This will be achieved by increasing reading competency of early grade students through improved teachers’ pedagogical and assessment practices, improving learning environments, and implementing a mechanism for reducing students’ early grade dropouts using a student attendance monitoring system. Three different but interlinked sets of interventions will be applied for this whole-school development approach in selected schools across Sindh, using government frameworks to allow sustainability and scale-up across the province with government resources over time. First, the project seeks to transform teaching practices in early primary grades by reforming the school learning culture to one that is focused on students’ varied learning needs, specifically related to literacy and socioemotional well-being. Differentiated teaching practices will be promoted in grades 1-5 through continuous professional development support which will focus on literacy subjects, assessment practices and behavioral support for students. Second, improved teaching will be accompanied by the establishment of effective, eco-friendly and conducive learning environments of primary schools through constructing and upgrading primary schools (grades 1 to 5) to elementary schools (early childhood education to grade 8) using sustainable design concepts. Third, to facilitate and support these changes, the project will work to improve system capacity for better leadership and management at the school, taluka, and district levels that will assist in building an educational culture based on instructional support and school-level performance improvement. The project will also support improved efficiency and effectiveness in the allocation and use of resources by automating student tracking and focusing support on schools with highest needs. These efforts will contribute to student retention within primary grades and promote transition from primary to secondary schools, seeking to address the out-of-school children challenge and the high rate of children dropping out from schools in Sindh.