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| HDF
Conference – Education First
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Human
Development Foundation held its 2nd annual conference
on June 7th, 2008 at the prestigious Union Club in
Downtown Chicago. The theme of the conference was
“Education as Freedom – unleashing the
power of civil society”.
This year’s event was designed as a day workshop
targeting to find the best practices around the world
in the field of Primary Education which could be utilized
in Pakistan. The conference featured cutting edge new
ideas as well as credible research based findings to
reflect the new age myths regarding the status of education
in Pakistan. One of the key accomplishments of the conference
was to bring together the leading US based non-profit
organizations working in the education sector in Pakistan
in a panel. These included DIL, TCF and HDF.
The participants were welcomed by Navaid Abidi, who
outlined the resourcefulness of the Diaspora as outlined
by the research conducted by Prof Adil Najam. Emphasis
was given on the need for effort to consolidate and
organize efforts of the Diaspora. The audience was encouraged
to participate actively to make the conference interactive.
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The
HDF Conference team with the Speakers: Farhan Siddiqui,
Jafer Hasnain, Laliwala, Danial Noorani, Azhar Hussain,
Dr Tariq Khan, Dr Naheed Qayyum, Dr Tahir Andrabi, Patrick
Fine, Randy Wang, Shazeen Mufti, Dr Shahnaz Khan, Luna
Banuri, Dr Atiya Khan, Dr Zeenat Anwar , Navaid Abidi
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 Mr.
Patrick Fine
 Mr
Azhar Hussain
Mr. Navaid Abidi
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A. Improve HDF in
its mission by learning from other related organization
and use the information that is already exists.
To provide recommendation and coherent ideas for Pakistani
Govt and private sector.
B. He recognized the
Convention organizing team which included Navaid Abidi,
Luna Banuri, Farhan Siddiqui and himself. The office
staff comprising of Fatima Hussain and Fahd Majeed were
also given special mention.
First Speaker of the conference was Mr. Patrick Fine
from AED (Academy for education Development) a non profit
organization working globally to improve education,
health, civil society and economic development. They
foster sustainable results through practical, comprehensive
approaches to social and economic challenges. AED implements
more than 250 programs serving people in all 50 U.S.
states and more than 150 countries.
He also shared his
personal experience of visiting Pakistan and living
with a family in Swat. The essence of the trip, he said
was learning his values, that he carries with him to-date
for life, from this family. He also showed his affinity
and inspiration of Mohd Yonus, the Noble Peace Prize
winner of Grameen Bank and described how AED immulated
the methodology of micro lending vis a vis giving access
to Education.
Mr. Fine presentation titled “Building on Success:
Breakthrough Ideas in Education” outlined the
Breakthrough ideas in education, which he described
as proven education innovations, methods, or approaches
that result in measurable, replicable, scalable, and
sustainable improvements in learning. He explained in
great length the concept of Active School vs Traditional.
According to him World Bank estimates the cost of educating
a child per year at $30. The enrollment level in Pakistan
currently stood at 75% boys and 55% girls in Primary
School. 25% boys and 18% girls in Secondary –
Significant drop in enrollment. 35% enrolled in Private
primary schools – not elite private schools but
village based fee schools.
The children in private
schools were ahead of the public schools academically,
reason being that Private schools have better accountability
for teachers. His suggestions included:
1.Advocate for
increased investment in Public education.
2.Look to Pakistan’s successful private school
systems for lessons of what works.
3.Demand increased accountability in public schools
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The second speaker was
Mr. Azhar Hussain, from International Center for Religion
and Diplomacy. ICRD is working with religious leaders
to enhance the curriculums and pedagogy of the madras
as. The goal is to inspire greater adherence to the
principles of tolerance and human rights in these
religious schools.
His presentation “Capacity enhancement initiative”
outlined that over a period of time the State conflicts
around the world are lesser in number but identity conflicts
have risen. Currently out 29 conflicts around the globe,
27 are identity issues. And with time they are becoming
more violent. The number of madras’s in Pakistan
has risen from 147 in 1947 to 15k+ today. As Madras’s
provide free boarding and religious studies, most of
the low family incomes are attracted by this offering.
Realizing the need for an overhaul, ICRD has based its
intervention on recognize the madras a as an important
institution, needing improvement to address contemporary
challenges. To Achieve capacity-building through confidence-building
and Engage in a respectful and consistent manner. All
of ICRD’s programs are based on mutual trust and
openness to learning.
ICRD’s efforts to date have involved more than
2,100 madras a instructors and faculty representing
over 1,200 madras as from every province in Pakistan.
They have worked with Pakistan’s five madras a
boards as well as international, regional and local
organizations. The third Speaker was Randy Wang from
Digital Hall Study: His presentation was a fascinating
journey to remote villages of India. Wang, who is the
chief architect of this project, described the program
as a research project that seeks to improve education
for the poor children in slum and rural schools in India.
In a nutshell, think of its technical approach as the
educational equivalent of Netflix + YouTube + Kazaa.
We digitally record
live classes by the best grassroots teachers, transmit
them on the "Postmanet" (effected by DVDs
sent in the postal system), collect them in a large
distributed database, and distribute them on DVDs to
poor rural and slum schools. Education experts and teachers
use the system to explore pedagogical approaches involving
local teachers actively "mediating" the video
lessons. By harvesting a "viral phenomenon"
of community participation, DSH aims to help train teachers
and deliver quality instruction to underprivileged children.
The project is a collaboration between computer scientists
and education experts.
A live deployment
of DSH has been operating in India since the summer
of 2005. As of spring of 2007, they ran pilot in three
cities in India (Lucknow, Bangalore, and Pune), covering
approximately 30 schools. The best thing about this
project is that it's attempting to focus on the problem
rather than the technology. As it stands, the system's
largest contribution is using high-quality videotaped
teaching content, mediated by live teachers, to teach
rural students. On would have to say this is the biggest
factor in the system's success.
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Dr. Tahir Andrabi
Randy Wang of Digital Study Hall
Danial Noorani-TCF Dr Atiya Khan-
HDF, Shazeen Mufti - DIL
Patrick Fine- AED |
Dr Aman Rasheed Counsel General
Pakistan with keynote speaker Dr Tahir Andrabi
 Dr
Shahnaz Khan Chairperson HDF Board
 Audience
Azhar Hussain- ICRD |
The
keynote speaker Tahir Andrabi, is an Associate Professor
of Economics at Pomona College. Professor Andrabi is
a graduate of Swarthmore College and holds a Ph.D. in
Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
His presentation was a snapshot of his research project
called LEAPS: Learning and Achievement in Punjab Schools.
The study conducted for 4 years in 112 villages around
Punjab serves as an eye-opener to the ground reality
as it exists on ground. He gave detailed numeric date
of the learning curve of children in Private vs. Public
Schools. In his study he mentioned that the overall
impression of most of the children going to Madras’s
is incorrect, infact less then 1% in this particular
research area were enrolled in Madrassas and there has
been no significant rise is this number. It is believed
that religious families send their children to madrassas,
but this is not the case as most families have at least
one child attending madrassas and another attending
a private school. In fact, religiosity, poverty, ethnicity,
etc play no role in choice of madrasa over private school.
The term ‘Private school’ is usually equated
with elite schools; these elite schools are too expensive
for most parents. However, private schools are not elite
schools and although their cost is slightly more than
public schools, there is not too much of a substantial
difference. Therefore, there is no great divide where
poor students attend one university and richer students
attend another.
He also spoke of the general impression that parents
are not interested in educating their children to be
absolutely incorrect in this area. His recommendations
included:
Government sector should complement private sector in
these ways:
Provide information for competition (learning outcomes
in every school)
Reform government hiring and compensation of teachers
Experiment with vouchers, perhaps
The Conference ended
with a Panel Discussion where HDF, TCF and DIL released
their combined statements supporting Education reforms
in Pakistan. It was also agreed to collaborate with
each other closely to share ideas and resources for
the common goal of Education in Pakistan.
The participants were encouraged to provide feedback
through a systematic priority based form. The highlight
of the consolidated result from these included:
Giving high priority
to Technological based solution for mass outreach of
Education
Increasing resources for Teacher training.
Influencing Education Policy for an outcome based approach
HDF Team is currently
organizing a set recommendation based on the lessons
learnt from the Conference speakers.
The conference was attended by a diverse group including
academician, students, activists and corporate sector.
The feedback has been positive and supportive. Please
visit the HDF website www.hdf.com to read the presentations
of all speakers.
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