Where We Work > Program List
Pakistan Reading Project
FUNDER: USAID
PARTNER: International Rescue Committee
CONTACT: [email protected]
Program Description
The Pakistan Reading Project was designed to improve the reading skills of 1.3 million children in grades one and two across the country.
In July of 2013, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded World Learning, in partnership with a consortium of international and local partners led by the International Rescue Committee, $160 million to implement the seven-year Pakistan Reading Project which worked in all provinces and regions of Pakistan to support improved reading outcomes through policy and systems reform, improved classroom learning environments, and strengthened community-based supports in an effort to ensure full and equal access to quality education for both girls and boys, and the engagement of communities to re-establish a culture of reading in the country.
World Learning led the implementation of all project activities in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and in Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) and was responsible for the technical leadership of PRP’s scholarship activities. This included administering thousands of scholarships to Pakistani students studying to earn either two-year associates degrees in education or four-year bachelor of education degrees in select Pakistani universities or Teacher Training Institutes (TTIs).
In addition, World Learning collaborated with 110 TTIs to strengthen reading and reading assessment training for pre-service teachers by facilitating the development of a reading curriculum for the associates’ and bachelors’ degree programs, training pre-service teachers on the use of teaching and learning materials developed by PRP, and strengthening linkages between practicum schools and PRP intervention schools. The project worked closely with Ministry of Education officials, provincial governments, university faculty, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), and the National Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (NACTE) to ensure TTIs obtained accreditation of their teacher education programs and revised reading specialization curricula.