JICA promotes alternative learning

NF-EMIS web version and social welfare official website launched in Balochistan

QUETTA: The Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) is implementing AQAL (Advancing Quality Alternative Learning) project in Balochistan, Sindh and Federally Administered Tribal Areas in a bid to strengthen Non-Formal Education (NFE) system in Pakistan.

The project will deliver quality NFE programmes for out-of-school children and adult illiterates by developing curricula, teaching and learning materials, related data management systems (NF-EMIS), monitoring and evaluation, training and assessment systems for adult literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education (NFBE) programmes.

A provincial-level launching ceremony of NF-EMIS web version and social welfare official website was held in the Conference Hall of Planning and Development Department, Civil Secretariat Balochistan, under the chairmanship of Muhammad Asghar Harifal, Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Special Education Literacy and NFE Department.



The launching ceremony was attended by Information Technology Director General Mohammad Tariq, director Literacy and NFE, government officials from social welfare, UN agencies, NCHD, BECS and other NFE service providers in the province.

Secretary Harifal thanked the JICA AQAL team and directorate of literacy and NFE for supporting his vision and developing both NF-EMIS web version and social welfare website.

He said, “The NF-EMIS will be integrated with formal education EMIS both at provincial and national levels to present a holistic picture of literacy and out-of-school children in the province.”

Harifal said, “The NF-EMIS will facilitate the decision makers in better planning, implementation and monitoring of NFE programmes in the province, which will improve their delivery.”

Regarding the official website of the Social Welfare Department, he said that the social welfare website contained all information regarding services provided by the department.



“The departments are striving to bring all those services at the doorstep of the people so that they can avail these services,” he said, adding that the website would contain a complaint and redressal page where people could share any complaints regarding the services which could then be improved.

The NF-EMIS is in fact a data-driven management tool that not only collects, analyses and reports NFE schools and centres’ data, but is also used as a monitoring and management tool to improve governance and quality of NFE programmes in the country.

The NF-EMIS has got the ability to integrate with formal schools’ EMIS to generate a holistic and complete report of the area and province. In addition to this, the NF-EMIS is properly synchronised with sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A national-level web version of NF-EMIS has been developed by social welfare, literacy and NFE Department with the technical support of JICA-AQAL, in consultation with the concerned NFE stakeholders under Coordination and Technical Committees of National EMIS, Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPAM).

NFEMIS.net is centralised software hosted on a dedicated server for round the clock online management across the globe. The NFE is providing organisations and projects at federal, provincial and district levels all over the country access to additional features of both class and package systems, geo coordinates of schools, pictures of learners and pre-enrolment status, assessment, tracking and monitoring systems at various levels.