Project for out-of-school children launched in Islamabad

ALP offers children chance to catch up on lost school time

ISLAMABAD: In order to get more out-of-school children back into classrooms and to make sure they catch up quick, an Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) was launched in the capital by the Minister of Education Muhammad Balighur Rahman.

The programme offers primary education equivalent of up to class five for out-of-school children allowing them to catch up with their peers in less than three years.

The curriculum has been developed by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the agency’s Advancing Quality Alternative Learning (AQAL) project.

The project particularly caters to those children who have never been to primary school - due to poor socio-economic backgrounds, religious and ethnic compulsions, poor results, physical or mental challenges - but are too old to go back and attend those classes.

While launching the programme, Rehman congratulated the cross-institutional committee which had been tasked with devising the curriculum. The minister also thanked JICA for their contribution.

“It becomes difficult for over-age children, who have missed out on schooling during their early years to adjust in the conventional classroom environment. The ALP provides them with a convenient second opportunity to catch up on lost time,” the minister he said. JICA Chief Representative Tojo Yasuhiro noted that the AQAL project would pave the way for out-of-school children to re-connect to education, build their lives and become productive members of the society.

Federal Education Secretary Haseeb Athar said alternative learning as part of the non-formal education was essential to bridge the in and the out-of-school gap.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2017.