Education Pakistan Project #36172

Keep Pakistan Learning

by Teach For Pakistan

Project Report | Mar 27, 2025
Leadership Beyond the Classroom!

By Hamna Aamir | Assistant Manager, Development and Partnerships

Project Salaamti - student support circle

Dear partner,

We hope you are well. The past few months at Teach For Pakistan have been filled with exciting developments . Our first-year Fellows returned to school after the winter break, ready to tackle the final stretch of their inaugural year in the Fellowship. Meanwhile, our second-year Fellows have continued to strengthen their impact on students, schools, and communities as they approach the conclusion of their two-year leadership journey.

In the latest quarter, our 2023 Fellowship cohort, now in their second and final year of teaching, have launched 18 Community Partnership Projects (CPPs) in 22 school communities across Islamabad. The themes are wide-ranging, including health and hygiene; creating a safe environment for students; child protection, non-cognitive skill development; financial and digital literacy. Fellows’ have already raised over Rs. 1,000,000 to implement these initiatives.

With an emphasis on creating sustainable change, these projects are designed to address salient barriers to student learning through innovative and small-scale initiatives. The CPPs are a culmination of thorough research, community needs assessments, and rigorous training. Each second-year Fellow has undergone an extensive selection process to ensure their projects have the maximum impact and are aligned to the needs of the communities they serve in. Fellows work closely with stakeholders within and across the community to ensure the impact of their project will long outlast their presence in schools.

Here is a glimpse at two of the many extraordinary initiatives our Fellows have designed and executed!

Salaamti - A Child Protection Program

For the past two years, Zainab and Elizay have been teaching at a public school in Tarnol. During their journey, they uncovered a pressing issue surrounding the safety of children in both their schools and the wider community. They identified child protection challenges including corporal punishment, unsafe community environments, and a lack of support at home and school. Many students reported that their voices were dismissed by both teachers and parents, leading to diminished motivation, disengagement from academics, and a broader disconnection from school life.

Recognizing the severe impact of child protection violations on student well-being and performance, Zainab and Elizay made these issues the central focus of their CPP. They launched "Salaamti"—a program designed to foster a safe learning environment and strengthen support systems within homes and schools. Their initiative is structured around three key pillars: educating students, teachers, and parents on the vital role of child protection in a healthy learning ecosystem; empowering students to advocate for their rights; and preparing them to use their voices to drive change within their schools and communities.

Zainab and Elizay have already made significant progress with their project. They have hosted workshops and sessions with students to help them identify unsafe spaces and recognize harmful situations. In addition, the Fellows have established support groups where students can openly share their experiences, helping them feel less isolated. Partnering with non-profit organizations, they’ve facilitated crucial sessions on "Good Touch, Bad Touch," promoting awareness and empowering students to take control of their bodies and their safety.

Both Zainab and Elizay have much more they wish to accomplish for Salaamti. They intend to reinforce stakeholder commitment by engaging with parents, institutionalizing and formalizing the project within the school, and expand community outreach and engagement for sustainable impact that will last beyond their presence in the school.

Rakhte Safar - Career Counselling and Development Program

While teaching at a public school in Nilore, second-year Fellows Hassan, Irfan, and Ashraf identified a critical gap in their students’ understanding of future career possibilities. The focus on traditional professions like doctor, engineer, and lawyer left many students struggling to envision a broader range of career options. This hindered their ability to make informed decisions about their futures and limited their capacity to dream beyond conventional paths. After conducting a survey, the Fellows discovered that 92% of students lacked access to career counseling; 73% were uncertain about the steps to achieve their desired careers; and 54% had never discussed their future aspirations with teachers or parents.

Recognizing the importance of providing students with the resources and knowledge to make informed career choices, the Fellows chose to address this gap through "Rakht-e-Safar", an initiative aimed at embedding career awareness within the school culture. The Fellows set out to achieve three main objectives: establishing a career counseling center, conducting career awareness workshops for both students and teachers, and producing a comprehensive career counseling booklet for students to reference.

Hassan, Irfan, and Ashraf have made remarkable progress. They hosted informative sessions for students, helping them explore various career paths and understand the university admission process, equipping them with practical knowledge to achieve their goals. Teacher workshops were organized to engage educators in the career counseling process, fostering a stronger commitment to student development. Additionally, the Fellows successfully trained three teachers as career counselors, providing students with one-on-one counseling opportunities, and organized a Role Model session where they had various lawyers come in to talk to students about the profession. Most notably, the Fellows established a dedicated Career Guidance Center, offering students a space to focus on their future aspirations, and have designed the materials for a Career Guidance booklet, which is ready to be printed and distributed.

While the Fellows intend to accomplish much more, their project so far has given their students not only an opportunity to dream bigger and without restraint, but also the tools needed to turn them into a reality.

Did you catch a look at other exciting developments at Teach For Pakistan in the past quarter? Look here!

Salaamti: session with teachers for collaboration!

Salaamti: student session-'Good touch, bad touch'

Rakhte Safar: intro session with students!

Rakhte-Safar: Role model session with students!

Links:

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Nov 30, 2024
Learning Together, Dreaming Together!

By Hamna Aamir | Senior Associate, Development and Partnerships

Students sharing the future they want for Pakistan

Dear Partner,

We hope you are well. The past few months have arguably been some of our most special at Teach For Pakistan. As of August this year, Teach For Pakistan launched its Karachi program, and placed Fellows in schools in the city to begin their leadership journeys. In addition to this, we welcomed back our second-year Fellows to begin their second and last year of teaching in schools, and worked to prepare them to further strengthen the progress and impact they have been making with their students and school communities over the past year. Teach For Pakistan currently has more than 150 Fellows across 50+ schools in both Islamabad and Karachi!

Developing Fellows’ leadership:

In the past quarter, we have provided Fellows extensive support to ensure they continue to excel in their classrooms and enable their students’ growth:

Back to School: As second-year Fellows returned to school after summer break, they came together to share their learnings from break, and orient themselves towards their last year in schools, particularly in view of strengthening their self-leadership.

Classroom Leadership: Teach For Pakistan classrooms are special for many reasons, one of them being that they are student-centric. For this training, Fellows first learned how to create student-centered learning spaces in their classrooms. Alongside this, they also reflected deeply on what drives them to do their work, aimed to identify what sustains their energies so they continue to fight against education inequity in the long-term.

Enabling Student Success: First-year Fellows were offered additional support to support their work with students. Across Islamabad and Karachi, Fellows gained insight on translating student outcomes into specific competencies, while also identifying strategies on how to make their vision and goals come to life for their students. Lastly, Fellows learned the importance of data-driven classrooms and participated in a small series of workshops to strengthen subject-specific pedagogy, accommodated to unique contexts across both Islamabad and Karachi.

Teach For Pakistan at the Pakistan Learning Festival

In November, Teach For Pakistan was invited to participate at the Pakistan Learning Festival, an annual 3-day festival to provide children a platform to promote reading, creativity, imagination, and a comprehensive experience to engage with knowledge beyond textbooks and examinations. The 3-day festival had a footfall of approximately hundreds of thousands of students from across public schools in the federal capital, and with it brought excitement and anticipation at what the three days would hold.

Teach For Pakistan joined in on the festivities as both organizers and attendees. A group of 14 Fellows and 25 students were part of the organizing committee, who came together to ensure their participation set them apart from the crowd - and that it did! Teach For Pakistan set up a booth at the festival for three days, visited by almost all those attending the festival. Here, we prepared an interactive board where anyone, particularly students, could share the kind of future they want to create for the country.

For the first activity, students were delighted to prepare ‘Are you smarter than a 5th grader’ where they came ready to stump attendees with questions on various subjects. Unsurprisingly, everyone that attended the students’ booth were excited to take part in the activity and had a wonderful time engaging in something both intellectual and light-hearted.

Another very special feature of Teach For Pakistan’s engagement at the festival was a visioning exercise titled ‘Aao mil kar khwab dekhein’ (Come, let’s dream together). For this, the Teach For Pakistan team worked closely with a set of students from the festival, pushing them to think about what dreams they have for themselves in the future. Students used this as a starting point to think about how they would achieve these dreams. This activity allowed students to dream not of an impossible reality, but an alternate one that is possible to achieve if they believe in it.

Teach For Pakistan’s presence at the festival was marked by hope and unwavering faith that one day all the children of Pakistan will be able to avail the opportunities they need to make their dreams a reality.

How to create student-centric classrooms!

Fellows learning how to build student leadership

A student sharing her hope for the future!

Our students at the Pakistan Learning Festival!

'Aao Mil Kar Khwab Dekhein' visioning excercise

Links:

To learn more about our work:

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Aug 2, 2024
Transforming Leadership for Tomorrow and Beyond!

By Hamna Aamir | Senior Associate, Development and Partnerships

The 2024 cohort Fellows!

Dear partner,

We hope your summer was an exciting one. The past few months at Teach For Pakistan have been nothing short of this: in June we strengthened our Alumni network as the 2022 cohort concluded their Fellowship and joined leaders working towards education equity. We have also spent the past few months planning and preparing to welcome our newest cohort: in July, we brought on 100+ more Fellows of the 2024 cohort to begin their six-week pre-placement training to prepare themselves for their leadership journeys over the next two years, in both Islamabad and Karachi. Our second-year Fellows from the 2023 cohort are also set to begin their second and last year of the Fellowship in August, and will be focusing on strengthening their relationships with their school communities and working towards exceptional student outcomes.

Details from the past quarter are highlighted below:

The Pledge

In the first week of June, Teach For Pakistan welcomed 87 Fellows into our Alumni network, now consisting of 300+ leaders! These Fellows have showcased extraordinary leadership in their unique contexts, having taught more than 8,000 students across 47 schools in the rural sub-sectors of Islamabad.Teach For Pakistan commemorated the cohort’s achievements through The Pledge - a celebration of the graduating cohort’s unwavering dedication to Pakistan’s children and a renewal of our collective commitment to ensuring that all children in Pakistan receive a quality education.

With more than 400 guests in attendance, the event was testament not only to the incredible work Fellows have done over the past two years, but also our students, who have time and again taken up the challenge of pushing themselves further and harder beyond expectations. Throughout the day we heard from Teach For Pakistan’s allies, Fellows, and students about their connection to this work and their journey over the last two years.

The event’s highlight were the Leadership Breakthroughs, delivered by Fellows and students. Leadership Breakthroughs are stories of hope - achieving inspiring outcomes against all odds and working in service of a larger vision. The full playlist for the Leadership Breakthroughs can be found here.

Teach For Pakistan’s 2024 cohort!

As one cohort’s journey concluded with Teach For Pakistan, another’s began: our 2024 cohort began their six-week pre-placement summer Training Institute in July. With more than 100 Fellows from over 40 cities across Pakistan, this cohort represents the strength and diversity needed from the leaders of today and tomorrow.

This cohort is particularly special as it marks Teach For Pakistan’s return to Karachi after 10 years. Of the 100+ Fellows from the 2024 cohort, a portion of Fellows will be placed in schools in three districts of Karachi, while the rest will be placed in public schools in the rural outskirts of Islamabad.

Training Institute is a critical time for Fellows as it prepares them to begin their leadership journeys and ground themselves in principles that will enable their work over the course of the next two years. The first two weeks of training were centered on theoretical sessions and pedagogical learnings that facilitate Fellows’ teaching practice, along with understanding their relationship with power and privilege as they prepare to work in unique contexts for the next two years. During the first two weeks, all Fellows attended Institute in Islamabad, and after this time, some Fellows traveled back to Karachi and the rest stayed in Islamabad for the remainder of Training Institute.

Summer School

As a precursor to their permanent placements for the Fellowship, Fellows have spent the past two weeks teaching in Summer School. This is a two-week period during Training Institute where Fellows have a chance to practically apply their theoretical knowledge from trainings by teaching in a classroom and are closely supported by qualified coaches to enable their accelerated growth. Summer School is special also because it allows Fellows to leverage their learnings as they prepare to begin teaching in their permanent schools, and familiarize themselves with the context of the work they are undertaking.

Teach For Pakistan is incredibly excited not only to watch the journey of our newest cohort unfold, and walk alongside our second-year Fellows as they begin their final year of the Fellowship, but also in taking you alongside us!

The 2022 cohort as Alumni!

Alina:one of two student Leadership Breakthroughs!

A training session for Fellows at Institute

Fellows teaching in Summer School, Islamabad!

Fellows teaching at Summer School, Karachi!

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