Our Teachers with Purpose, Passion and Professional Dignity in Service of Foundational Learning in Pakistan
The World Teachers’ Day 2025 is dedicated to Dr. Amin Ullah, Ms. Zoobiah Mehmood, Ms. Hamida Bano, Ms. Kishwar Sultana, Mr. Yasir Ali and the thousands, if not millions, of teachers who teach from their innermost core. Yesterday was a wonderful encounter as I visited schools for my deliberate dose of inspiration from teachers, who often work against all odds in the urban run-down slums of Karachi, though this could just as easily have taken place in the deep rural areas of Pakistan. I say ‘deliberate’ because I was visiting schools to witness the implementation of possible system-wide foundational learning by the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) in Sindh.
SELD’s recently finalized Sindh ECCE and Foundational Learning Policy 2024 is now in rapid implementation mode. All projects in Sindh include sizable segments on Foundational Learning (FL) and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). ITA is supporting these efforts through two system-focused initiatives. SELD has notified a Technical Working Group (TWG) and sub-committees on Literacy, Numeracy, and Social-Emotional Learning, with relevant technical stakeholders actively engaged in practice, evidence and policy.
An early morning drive to Karachi West District took us to the sprawling Orangi Town, the largest urban slum in Pakistan, a place known for multiple people-led innovations by the iconic Akhtar Hamid Khan. Sadly, it still exists in a state of sporadic growth and broken-down services, where even Google Maps struggle to navigate its angled slippery by-lanes.
Education here is no different. Pioneer private schools coexist with newer public sector counterparts, established only after the regularization of the urban slum in small, squalid settlements inhabited by migrant communities from across Pakistan.
My visits were to two government primary schools: one in Frontier Colony (named for its population of early Pashto-speaking settlers from the former NWFP), and another near Madina Sabri Chowk, with enrollments of 550 and 260 students respectively; 75-80% are in daily attendance, as per the registers.
In both schools, two Teaching at the Right Level (TARL) or Chalo Parho Barho (CPB) camps were in full swing, despite an ongoing teachers’ union strike. Each camp supports 35–40 students from Grades 3–5 who are newly enrolled or at risk of dropping out due to fragile literacy and numeracy skills. Baseline results were boldly displayed on the walls to track student progress over the 10-week camps, which also include midline and endline assessments for Urdu/Sindhi, English, and Math.
Other charts filled the print-rich classrooms packed with students. Some children sat outside, working on TARL floor activities. The master trainers and teachers (all selected by the SELD) had been trained in the unique, intensive, yet simple and routine TARL pedagogies which integrate a built-in science of language, math, and a generous dose of loving care and dignity.
As a student of the TARL "jadoo" or TARL-CAMAL (Combined Actions for Maximized Learning), I am always curious to see how teachers iterate and adapt this simple yet transformative pedagogy in different contexts. How does TARL-CPB enable students to move from beginner to advanced competency levels, e.g., two-digit division or reading a story with comprehension, in just 8–10 weeks?
Why do teachers who until recently relied on rote learning, chanting and chalk-talk so quickly shift, with just 5–6 days of training, to co-creation and active learning? How do they confidently handle a unique assessment system used three times over a 10-week period? How do ordinary teachers become extraordinary co-creators with their students, especially in under-resourced contexts?
Small interventions, such as learners’ workbooks, simple materials like straws, fake money, wall charts, picture scenes, chalk, rubber bands, scissors, tape, two floor mats (darris), and a water cooler, work wonders in the hands of these government school teachers.
Kishwar Sultana and Yasir chose to co-teach their two FL camps, assisting each other and keeping watch over every student to ensure engagement. After a warm-up and lesson demonstration on emergent vocabulary using mind maps and letters, they led a group activity to build stories from a picture chart, this one about life around a river.
The magic of a teacher-as-facilitator was infectious. Each of the 35 students had something to say about the picture, building not just vocabulary but also the power of observation, noticing even small details like a mosque in the distance with a loudspeaker for community messaging, animals, birds, children swimming and diving and trees surrounded by lots of social activity. The stories became richer as each child contributed to the wordless picture — no student was left out.
Teachers used every TARL pedagogy to co-create with students, warm up poems, group, and individual engagement for mastery; and all within one hour per subject.
Kishwar and Yasir were true CAMAL teachers, one with a BA- B. Ed and the other with an associate degree in Engineering (hired through merit recruitment), pouring heart, soul, and mind into their teaching, and never forgetting the last child.
Their school, with 250 students, had only two rooms, a passage divided into two classrooms, a courtyard borrowed from a neighbor, and two semi-functional toilets. Students regularly left to use the washrooms at home. The headteacher’s desk was located in the margins of the school. They requested that we advocate for building additional floors so they could teach with dignity. We promised to forward a strong request to SELD.
At GGPS Frontier Colony, we were welcomed by a PhD headteacher whose research focused on Activity-Based Learning (ABL) from Hamdard University. He beamed with pride: “I am so happy to have TARL in my school; Ability Based Learning was the subject of my thesis”
We were keen to observe the FL interventions. Two TARL-trained government teachers were running concurrent literacy and numeracy camps for Grades 3 and 4. Outside, in a narrow courtyard, girls worked in groups, sorting letters from small baskets to form words. Their lively communication chatter was in Pashto, while the words were being formed in Urdu, a real-life example of bilingual learning.
There were visible signs of joy as groups successfully “double-spoke” across both languages making many words from the letters in their baskets. It reminded me of the recent Yidan Prize Laureate 2025, Mamadou Amadou Ly, whose work in Senegal and West Africa breaks language barriers by combining home languages with official instruction, reshaping classroom culture from rote to inclusive pedagogies. Like TARL/CPB, their materials are also open-licensed.
In the second camp, Ms. Zoobia, another merit-based recruit in 2022, had her students working from their desks due to space limitations. She carefully called each child to the board to demonstrate learning steps. Using simple sticks (units) and bundles (tens), she skillfully layered concepts like 32 and 45, building understanding. Despite Pashto-Urdu language challenges, both students and teachers radiated confidence.
“I love what I do to empower our students,” she said. “The CAMAL/TARL method helps me do just that. I worked for eight years at TCF schools and as a trainer. Now, being in a government school, I already knew these methods — and I love seeing the results.”
She pointed out to Sadia, a Grade 3 student who, just 15 days ago, couldn’t recognize two-digit numbers. Now, she confidently explained units and tens with sticks and bundles on the board.
The PhD headteacher welcomed us to his office and said:
“Yes, the teachers’ strike is on in Sindh, and I must adhere to my comrades’ demands. But I must also support a movement for foundational learning, for my students, using pedagogies that reflect my purpose, passion, and profession.”
Let’s empower teachers across Pakistan through professional development, systemic support, and dignified learning. TARL-CPB is doing just that as SELD rolls out foundational learning across Sindh.
The good news is that TARL has now become a social movement across Pakistan, with five foundational learning policies in place and under implementation by the government and its partners.
Happy World Teachers’ Day 2025!
Baela Jamil
CEO, ITA
Founder, Pakistan Learning Festival
📧 baela.jamil@itacec.org