RESEARCH, ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION UNIT

Early Language/Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (4-10 yr olds) 2021-2023

With the PAL Network KIX GPE Project ASER Centre- ACER & PAL Network

ELANA is an early language, literacy and numeracy assessment that covers pre-primary and early primary grade competencies for children aged 4-10 years. The tool, currently under development in 9 languages will be implemented by PAL Network member organizations in 12 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The assessment is implemented digitally, using tablets and an application that was designed for this project. In its final version, the assessment will also be adaptive, enabling more granular and precise estimation of children’s skills. Data from the first round of implementation, scheduled for late 2022, will help national and international policy makers and funders understand what young children can do and where they need support. By 2023,

ELANA will be available in the public domain, enabling parents, teachers, educationists, and others to freely use the tool in a range of settings and contexts. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this type of data is essential to helping children get back on track after extended school closures. Starting with the youngest learners can prevent the need for catch-up programs later.

ITA, as a partner of the PAL Network, has pre tested ELANA along with 11 other member countries. Pilots are being conducted to further refine the tool along with the application. Final round of pilot will be conducted in March 2023. More information can be found here: https://palnetwork.org/elana/

Globally there is a common understanding that we lack specific data on the educational performance of children with disabilities because standardized testing methods in low- and middle-income countries are usually not accessible for students with disabilities. Hence we are going to conduct a pilot project, which will contribute to the development of disability-inclusive assessment systems that assist policymakers and implementers to achieve inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all with a particular focus on SDG 4.1: proficiency in reading and mathematics. The project will contribute to this by ensuring that the International Common Assessment of Numeracy (ICAN), a validated and reliable assessment tool, is accessible for children with sensory impairments. The main outcomes of the project are;

Outcome 1: ICAN is made inclusive for girls and boys with sensory impairments through the application of Universal Design for Learning principles, and guidelines and materials are available in the public domain.

Outcome 2: Inclusive ICAN guidelines and recommendations are shared in Pakistan and at the international level, and endorsement of the inclusive ICAN guidelines in Pakistan is promoted through engagement with provincial and federal ministries of education.

The Key implementing partners of the project are SightSavers, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi and Deaf Reach.

Key Deliverables
	Development of ICAN draft guidelines and materials by technical core group (national and international experts from Sightsavers, ITA, and Deaf Reach)
	Trainings, Pretesting and Piloting of Guidelines
	Final Review, Translation and report of piloting of guidelines
	Advocacy of the final guidelines by developing a strategy, dissemination at all national and international forums

The 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report), titled “Regional Report on Non-State Actors and Education in South Asia” focused on the role of non-state actors in education, acknowledging their growing importance in education systems. This regional report focused on South Asia, a region with strong non-state presence in education systems at all levels of education. It covers nine countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The chapter on Pakistan was co-authored by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) and UNESCO that delineated on the various non-state actors operating within the country. To formally kick start discussions around this crucial facet of Pakistan’s education system, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) organized launches for the report in Islamabad (7th November, 2022), Lahore (9th November, 2022) and Karachi (11th November, 2022).

While summary along with the translation was disseminated at the launches, full report was not received till then. It has just been received last week and will now be printed.

2021-2023

Pakistan and Kenya

Lead organization ITA With Zizi Afrique in Kenya

Schools 2030 is a ten-year participatory learning improvement programme based in 1,000 government schools across ten countries. With her focus on the key transition years of ages 5, 10 and 15 years old, the program applies the principles of human-centred design to support teachers and learners to design and implement education micro-innovations. Schools 2030 is a ten-year participatory learning improvement programme based in 1,000 government schools across ten countries. With her focus on the key transition years of ages 5, 10 and 15 years old, the program applies the principles of human-centred design to support teachers and learners to design and implement education micro-innovations.

The research, titled “Catalyzing locally-rooted education solutions to improve holistic learning in Pakistan and Kenya” aimed at contextualizing and examining the relationship between academic learning outcomes as offered currently in targeted program schools. It also aimed at generating robust evidence on school (leader) and teacher-led interventions that effectively develop and incorporate non-academic skills into the existing school system so as to provide a holistic learning experience. The research explored context-specific factors and mechanisms that may be enabling or constraining the effective implementation as well as what this may mean in terms of ability to drive system-wide change.

For the purpose of the study, ITA has surveyed 18 schools from Pakistan (12 from Chitral region and 6 from Gilgit region). The focus is on students in primary to late secondary education—key stages of education and transition points of education in both countries.

ARNEC 2022-23

Micro Research with ARNEC on Impact of Climate Change and Environmental Degradation on ECE

A Five Village Household survey in Shikarpur – Sindh

ECE Research studies Concluded In 2022

ELP Systems - 2018-2022

AESAS 2020-22

Early Learning Partnerships (ELP) Systems Phases I -III

AESAS: Assessing Early Years Schooling, Access and Student Outcomes (AESAS) AESAS is a research study undertaken in Pakistan and India funded by the British Academy that aims to address the theme of sustainable early childhood education within Pakistan and India. The study, based on 1,500 young children from one province in Pakistan and one state in India, will examine patterns of enrolment of children and school readiness by socioeconomic group, family background, urban/rural locations and individual characteristics such as gender, disability and health. Their attendance and progress at school will be analyzed over one year, demonstrating how much of a difference school attendance can make to children’s cognitive development and health outcomes. We will collect in-depth information from families and communities on their views of schools, and any barriers to attendance, and conduct a systematic review of the evidence. The findings will have policy implications on school enrolment, attendance and retention. Partners: British Academy and Durham University. https://itacec.org/aesas/?func=page&page_id=aesas

2022 October-2023 September

In 2 target districts of Sindh affected by the emergency, ITA will support a 22-23 months “Recovery for foundational learning’ program in two phases

	Intervention I, in the agreed target districts and selected schools provide support to 40,000 children provided Back to School Kits that include school bags, stationary kits, exercise books and lunch box; one uniform set; Dignity Kits (8000) Schools (800) to receive health/hygiene and Teaching Learning Materials/ECE Kits, STEM, Libraries
	Intervention II: targeting the same schools/children provide support to 30,000 children ages 6-14 with Teaching at the Right Level (TARL) or Chalo Parho Barho (CPB) accelerated foundational learning of 45-55 days, with capacity building for school teachers. This will have an active research component with baseline, midline and endline assessment of children enrolled in camps. Information on our previous round of CPB can be found here (https://www.itacec.org/CPB-(Accelerated-Learning-Programme). Rest of the documents have been shared with all team members.
	Implementation III: “every child counts -every home matters’ a local level planning and learning approach in 2 selected villages (one per district) with no more than 300-400 households, ensure 100% enrolment with learning of all children supported by back to school kits for students/schools and TARL/catch up/remedial learning - the strategy is village and school based
	Host an evidence-based advocacy camp of the “Recovery for Foundational Learning” interventions, lessons learnt for scaling up by SELD & Partners.

2022-2024

5 Districts of KP and Balochistan Education Cannot Wait

UNICEF, VSO & Implementing Partners

Education Cannot Wait funded learning and skilling emergency program (3-16 year olds) for refugee and host communities in 5 districts (3 KP/ 2 Baloch.) with baselines/endlines surveys to support with ECE, Catch Up, Accelerating Learning for Adolescent Girls/Boys and TVET for 14 year + providing support for children with disabilities, minority and transgender groups.

Status:
	Training of Master Trainers for conducting Baseline Survey completed at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan in DEC’2022.
	Training of Master Trainers for conducting Scoping Study completed at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan in DEC’2022.
	Capacity building training of ECs and IPs for ECE Camps in DEC’2022.
	Capacity building training of ECs and IPs for Catchup Classes Camps in DEC’2022.

Planned:
	Capacity building training of ECs and IPs for SMCs Activation/Code of Conduct/School Development plans/MHPSS/DRR etc in JAN’2023
	Analysis and Reports of Baseline in JAN’2023
	Analysis and Reports of Qualitative Baseline Interviews in Feb’2023
	Analysis and Reports of Scoping Study in Feb'2023.

Client: KARACHI URBAN LAB

2022-23

Rising temperatures in cities make access to cool infrastructures a global challenge. There have been no systematic, comparative attempts to document how people living in contexts of urban poverty manage heat or meet their needs for cool food, water and space. As a result, there is little evidence about whether current strategies are a good fit for the contexts in which they are deployed. This project, undertaken by Karachi Urban Lab, puts 'access to cooling' at the centre of a major new interdisciplinary and comparative study of human-infrastructure interactions in 'the off-grid city'.

As a part of this project, Karachi Urban Lab joined hands with ITA to:

	Understand the effects of Karachi’s heat and climatic peculiarities on child learning outcomes
	Increase access to affordable, sustainable cooling for the most marginalized urban residents in four cities by making 'cool infrastructures' a key component of national and international frameworks for action on extreme heat.
	Transform how national and international actors understand the cooling needs and capacities of marginalized women and men living in urban energy poverty by generating and disseminating new data and evidence.
	Enhance research capacity to address challenges of cooling in four DAC list countries.
	As part of the fieldwork, a total of 15000 household [HH] surveys were conducted across 28 residential sites, and a total of 5000 commercial surveys were conducted across 20 locations, in Karachi under ITA.

Data has been submitted to Karachi Urban Lab Team.

Some basic cleaning /analysis to be completed by ITA