Annual Status of Education Report
ASER Pakistan 2011
Proposal
Submitted to:
DFID Pakistan
Ver 8
September14, 2011
Submitted by:
Prepared by: ASER Pakistan Team
Baela R Jamil, Imtiaz Nizami, Safyan Jabbar, Suwaibah Mansoor & Ravish Amjad
For any clarifications, please contact:
SAFED Secretariat
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA)
41-L, Model Town Extension , Lahore.
Lahore, Pakistan
Email:
Website:
Table of Content
Project Summary / 4Background and Rationale / 5
Introduction to ASER Pakistan / 6
ASER Pakistan 2011 / 8
Overall Goal / 8
Objectives / 8
Geographical Coverage / 9
Timeframe / 9
Approach and Methodology / 9
Phase I: Pre-Survey Preparation / 9
Phase II: ASER 2011 Survey / 15
Phase III: Citizen-led Advocacy for Improved Learning Outcomes / 19
Key Deliverables / 22
Evaluation / 23
ASER Partners / 26
Media Strategy / 26
Monitoring and Quality Assurance / 27
Sustainability / 27
Management / 28
Funding Partners / 31
Work Plan / 33
Key Dates / 35
Critical Assumptions and Risk Management / 37
Annexes / 38
Acronyms
AJK / Azad Jammu and KashmirAKU-IED / Aga KhanUniversity - Institute for Educational Development
ASER / Annual Status of Education Report
BBSA / Baluchistan Boys Scouts Association
CREATE / Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity
CSOs / Civil Society Organizations
CSR / Corporate Social Responsibility
DCHD / Democratic Commission for Human Development
DEP / District Education Plan
DFID / Department for International Development
ECE / Early Childhood Education
EFA / Education for All
FOSI / Foundation Open Society Institute
HEC / Higher Education Commission
ICT / Information and Communication Technology
IPL / Institute for Professional Learning
ITA / Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi
LSE / LahoreSchool of EconomicsUniversity
MDGs / Millennium Development Goals
MoE / Ministry of Education
NCERT / National Council of Educational Research and Training
NCHD / National Commission for Human Development
NGO / Non-Governmental Organization
OSF / Open Society Foundation
PCE / Pakistan Coalition of Education
PPS / Probability Proportional to Size
PSLM / Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement
SAFED / South Asia Forum for Education Development
SEF / Sindh Education Foundation
UNESCO / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UoE / University of Education
US / United States
WSIP / WholeSchool Improvement Program
Project Summary
Title: Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Pakistan 2011
Summary: ASER Pakistan is a citizen-led movement for improving the state of learning outcomes of children. Based on a tested methodology, ASER collects data from households, government and private schools on the status of schooling, and tests mothers and children on literacy and numeracy skills in local languages, English and Mathematics. The results of ASER survey are representative at district, provincial and national level. The findings are disseminated widely to put pressure on the service providers to improve learning outcomes. In 2011, ASER Pakistan 2011 will cover 50400 households in rural areas of 83 districts. Three (3) of these districts will be covered fully to pilot ASER in urban areas as well (the intention is to scale up the report to the whole of Pakistan next year). Capacities of more than 5000 youth will be built to assess learning levels of school children. In order to enhance the impact, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) will pilot a model advocacy project based on ASER findings in 15 districts – 10 in Punjab and 5 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Civil society coalitions will be formed in these districts which will engage district and provincial level education authorities to take measurable steps for improving the status of learning.
Project Start Date:April 16, 2011
Project End Date: April 15, 2012
Contact Information
Applicant: Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA)
Contact Person:Baela Raza Jamil
Title: Director Programs, ITA/SAFED Coordinator
Email:
Website:
Project Manager: Imtiaz A. Nizami
Title:Manager Programs
Email: ,
ASER 2011 ProposalPage | 1
Technical proposal for ASER Pakistan 2011
Section 1: Background and Rationale
Pakistan is far away from achieving this objective and is off track for both Education for All (EFA) goals and the second Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education. The achievement of universal primary schooling requires not only that all children of school-age have enrolled in school but that they also complete primary education successfully. According to the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE), meaningful access requires high attendance rates, progression through grades with little or no repetition, and learning outcomes that confirm that basic skills are being mastered.[1] From the little evidence available, it would seem that Pakistan has been struggling with lamentably poor achievement and learning levels of children. Conditions are particularly poor in rural areas.[2]
The available data suggests that children are not learning well. Nearly half of 6-16 year old children assessed in ASER 2010 could not read a sentence in Urdu or in their own language. Similarly, on English reading and comprehension, 32% children can read sentences, 55% can read words and 18% children stand at the beginners’ level. Seventeen percent of these children stood at beginners’ level in Mathematics and could not even recognize 0-9 numbers.[3] This state of affairs calls for continuous monitoring and publicizing of learning levels to create pressure for positive change.
The government is committed to improve this situation and ensure that all children (5-16 years) in Pakistan are enrolled in schools, complete at least 5 years of primary schooling by 2015, along with reduction in gender equality in enrollment and learning outcomes.
With high expenditure and ambitious goals, monitoring of education programs for progress on outcomes becomes essential. Internal evaluation and self-regulation by the government is necessary and needed for program implementation, but assessment that is independent is also critical to ensure transparency and accountability. These broad ideas are now widely accepted not only by people at large but also by policymakers. The big question, however, is what should be done and how? A movement such as ASER engages multiple partners to generate evidence and exert pressure for quality education from a citizens’ perspective, legitimately asking questions: How do we know that our child learns adequately? How do we measure it? How do we track it? How do we engage with schooling options and facilities? How do we rate schools’ performance that impacts our children’s learning outcomes? What can WE do about improving their learning outcomes?
The ASER Pakistan 2010-2015 will help in highlighting the gaps on a district by district basis in terms of access and quality of education for children aged 3 – 16 years, covering the age group stipulated by Article 25-A (5-16 years). The ASER survey is a mirror for the government and citizens to collaboratively track implementation and its challenges. It will assist government and society to create powerful evidence-based platform for meaningful advocacy. The citizens can use its findings to hold the duty bearers accountable for the educational outcomes. It is expected that this citizen-led initiative will mobilize district level education authorities and stakeholders to understand the extent of the problem and work towards measurable solutions. It is hoped that many positive synergies will be created with several groups in government, private and non-government sectors to complement each other’s work and recognize the value of the ‘intelligent and self-governing citizen’.
Section 2: Introduction to ASER Pakistan
2.1When and where did ASER originate initially?
In addition to ensuring quality education, it is equally important to monitor and evaluate the quality of education being provided to children and subsequently devise steps and strategies to rectify the situation if needed. One such endeavor was embarked upon in India by the NGO, Pratham, in the form of ASER in 2005. It has already accomplished six rounds of countrywide ASER India.
Pratham runs a large-scale citizens’ initiative that started in 1993-94 in Mumbai, India.
Its objective is to bring every child to school and help every child to learn well. Today it is a massive network of learning initiatives in different parts of the country. The basic principle is to bring citizens, government and industry together to ensure universalization of elementary education.
ASER has sought to gather information on very basic learning instruments, which are reading and arithmetic. A set of core questions have been designed which are adapted and expanded each year to explore different dimensions of schooling and learning at the elementary stage. This ensures that the data is comparable and easily collected by the surveyors. Over the years ASER has become well reputed for its novel approaches to learning issues in the field as a unique tool in the region, and at the global level too.
ASER uses a simple definition of universalization of elementary education: “every child in school and learning well”. ASER keeps the spotlight on out of school children in each district. The “last mile” is often the hardest to cover.
Further, to bringing learning to the centre stage in all discussions of educational planning and implementation, ASER focuses on basic learning, especially reading of simple texts and simple arithmetic. To do that, it is important not only to have data but also to disseminate and discuss the findings widely within different layers of the government and among citizens more broadly. For widespread dissemination and discussion, indicators need to be simple and easy to understand. ASER aims to provide just such information.
2.2When and how was ASER replicated in Pakistan?
In 2008, ASER survey was conducted by multiple partners of the South Asian Forum for Education Development (SAFED). SAFED is coordinated and managed by ITA for the first time in Pakistan.[4] ITA is a national organization, operating from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to Sindh with many sector-wide initiatives in education ( The ASER pilot’s key lesson in 2008/9 was that whilst partner organizations were eager to learn the methodology, they were unable to support the exercise in a timely manner due to modest resources. This realization led ITA/SAFED to assume the role of the Coordinator for mobilization of partnerships and resources in the extremely tough conditions of Pakistan. The challenge is to ensure continuity of ASER for six consecutive years until December 2015, the deadline for achieving quality universal primary education (Millennium Development Goal on education), endorsed by the Government of Pakistan.
In 2010, over 2000 Pakistani citizens were engaged and capacitated to collect evidence from rural households on children’s schooling and learning levels (3-16 years). This led to production of vital information about the current status on access and more importantly on the quality of learning outcomes. The initiative seeks to generate a demand-side response to address major education and governance gaps.
Phases & coverage of ASER 2010- 2015
- Phase I : Year I (2010) – 32 districts across Pakistan (Completed)
- Phase II : Years II (2011) – 83 districts across Pakistan (83 Rural – pilot in urban areas of three (3) of these districts)
- Phase III : Years III, IV , V all districts across Pakistan
ASER 2008: SAFED and its alliance partners in Pakistan carried out an ASER survey (pilot) in 11 districts of Pakistan (ICT, Punjab and Sindh) in 2008 to measure the learning level of 3-16 years children,. This data was compiled and launched as a report endorsed by the government, civil society organizations and media alike.
ASER 2010: ASER Pakistan 2010 was conducted in 32 rural districts across Pakistan, covering 54,062 children in 19,000 households in 960 villages. ASER Pakistan 2010 findings were shared with stakeholders at all levels i.e. national, provincial, districts and international levels. ASER Pakistan 2010 has provided a base for decision-making at all levels. Its data has been endorsed by the Planning Commission of Pakistan/Ministry of Education (posted on websites). It has been quoted by Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2011 and is expected to be picked up in GMR 2012 as well. ASER 2010 results have also been incorporated in the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-2011 in the chapter on education.
Box I
Creating Ripples and Knowledge Multipliers
ASER Pakistan 2010 has been a trigger for research initiatives funded by the World Bank and Open Society Institute (OSI) in education within Pakistan and across South Asia (e.g. School TELLS; Privatization trends and shadow schooling/tuition in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh). There is major interest in expanding this methodology to other social sectors (health, water sanitation and financing of education/social sector) for increasing citizen-led accountability of services.
In addition, as articulated by the Minister for Education Sindh, the provincial government has used ASER widely for its own sector plan and strategy for regularly obtaining data on children’s learning level in all schools for informing its policies, budgets and actions.
(Karachi, July 18, 2011)
2.3How does ASER compare with other Learning Assessment Systems in Pakistan?
Recognizing the significance of measuring learning levels, the Pakistan Government has in recent years undertaken large scale assessment initiatives. One such assessment system already in place is the National Education Assessment System (NEAS). Another is the Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) endeavor. However, ASER is different from the above mentioned initiatives in several ways.
Table 1: How is ASER different from NEAS and PEC?
National Education Assessment System / Punjab Examination Commission / Annual Status of Education ReportNEAS was established in the late 1990s as a country-wide initiative to build assessment capacity at school, provincial and federal levels to measure learning outcomes and improve the quality of education. To date, NEAS has conducted three rounds of subject-based assessments (
NEAS is planned as a sample-based national assessment for grade 4th and grade 8th in four subjects: Language, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.
Its frequency is sadly delayed. In 2010/11 Punjab Education Assessment System (PEAS) has conducted grade 4 District Wide Large Scale Assessment (D-WLSA) in Mathematics, Language [Urdu] & Social Studies / PEC is a provincial initiative of the Government of the Punjab, established in 2004, to address the quality challenge. PEC is an autonomous body to administer assessment-only examinations for grade 5 and grade 8 in all subjects and both public and private schools.
To date, five rounds of assessments have been held in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 ( Sadly its benchmark was lowered from 33% to 25% in 2011.
PEC coversPunjab’s government and private schools. / ASER is a household-based survey to measure reading, comprehension and numeracy skills for children between the ages of 3-16. Launched in India in 2005 by Pratham (an NGO), it has been conducted consecutively each year (2005-2009) across all districts of India, with a focus on rural areas.
Compared to NEAS, PEAS and PEC, ASER is a household based survey looking at more generic skills of numeracy and literacy compared to subject-specific learning levels.
ASER is the only source which provides district-wise data on learning outcomes in Pakistan.
ASER is a citizen-led independent initiative.
ASER is based on a household survey and thus assesses everyone in the age group of 3-16 years within the selected household. This allows a comparison of learning differences among those enrolled and not enrolled in school. Moroever, ASER measures more generic and basic numeracy and literacy skills rather than the subject and often curriculum-based specific skills measured by NEAS and PEC for specific grades (Grades 4, 5 and 8). This is important because it allows us to paint a more vivid picture of basic learning than has historically been available.
Section 3.ASER Pakistan 2011
3.1 Overall Goal
The overall goal of ASER Pakistan is “Quality education: A right of every child“
3.2Objectives
- Map the status of schooling and learning levels by collecting data at household level in 83 districts of Pakistan and measure change over the previous year;
- Build a pool of citizens nationally with capacities to assess learning levels using simple tools
iii.Increase citizen pressure on the government and other duty bearers, using ASER findings, for improving learning levels of school children
3.3Geographical Coverage
ASER Pakistan 2011 will cover 83 districts across Pakistan covering rural areas. In three (3) of these districts, ASER methodology will be piloted in urban areas. Full list is attached as Annex 1.
3.4Timeframe
April 16, 2011 – April 15, 2012
3.5Approach and Methodology
The proposed project will be implemented in three phases. The first phase will focus on staffing, finalization of research design, data collection tools, and capacity building on ASER methodology. In the second phase, data will be collected, edited, cleaned and entered into the data entry software. The analysis and report writing will also take place in this phase. In the third phase, the ASER report will be disseminated widely and advocacy will be undertaken in pilot 15 districts. Details of activities to be implemented in each phase are given below.
Phase I Pre-Survey PreparationStaffing, data collection tools, research design
Activity I.1Core team mobilized
The core team for ASER Pakistan 2011 comprises of 12 professionals –Technical Advisor, Director Research, four Research Associates, five Provincial Coordinators, and one Data Analyst. All the team is already on board, except the Research Director and two Research Associates who will be hired at the inception phase. In the pool of Research Associates, there will be one statistician and one economist. In order for the entire team to be on the same page, internal meetings and discussions are held regularly in the first month of the project period. In addition, discussions are held on job descriptions of the team for clarity on roles and responsibilities.
Activity I.2Project orientation meetings and strategic planning
ITA will organize project orientation meetings with ASER partners, core team, and other stakeholders to discuss key dimensions of the project including tools, roll out plans, data collection, report layout, etc. The main objective of these meetings is to develop a consensus among the partners, update them on implementation progress and discuss future plans. These meetings are held at least quarterly. In total, 10 meetings will be held in Islamabad and Lahore.