Alif Ailaan () was a nonprofit organization working in the field of

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

from 2013 to 2018. Launched by a team of media and communications specialists, the program aimed to highlight education on priority basis in Pakistan and make the masses aware of the importance of education. It ran campaigns in print, on radio and television, and on social media for awareness of the masses about education. The program conducts

seminars A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...

and surveys and publishes the highly cited district education rankings report. It also monitored the performance of parliamentarians in reforming education in their

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. Working in the four

provinces of Pakistan The administrative units of Pakistan comprise four provinces, one federal territory, and two territorial dispute, disputed territories: the provinces of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, Pakistan, Baloch ...

as well as

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir ( ), is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger ...

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

and the formerly

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

, Alif Ailaan identified the weak spots in education through research and aimed to assist decision makers in creating and implementing better education policies.

Contributions

Alif Ailaan addressed the educational crisis in

and suggested measures to reform the education landscape. Through their research and data compilation, they assisted decision makers to come up with. Funded by the United Kingdom's

Department for International Development The Department for International Development (DFID) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid ...

, the organization also provided grant support to civil society organisations working for educational reforms and fund research on issues related to education in Pakistan.

District Education Rankings

Alif Ailaan also released annual District Education Rankings for all districts of Pakistan on the basis of its research. The research examined the state of education in the country's 148 districts and agencies and identified the weak spots in education. According to District Education Rankings 2013, the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

was on the top while

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of de ...

falls in the bottom. No districts of the

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

could find a place among top 50. The 2014 District Education Rankings of 146 districts of Pakistan show that

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

was the best performing region in terms of overall standards of education, followed by districts of

and

(AJK). The 2015 District Education Ranking shows poor performance of

while the performance of

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

for improving its enrollment, retention and gender parity indicators was lauded.

Rawalpindi district Rawalpindi District (Punjabi language, Punjabi and ) is a Districts of Pakistan, district located in the northernmost part of the Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab province of Pakistan. Parts of the district form part of the Islamabad Rawalpindi metropo ...

was on top of the ranking.

Performance of parliamentarians in education sector

Alif Ailaan also gauged the performance of every Member of the National Assembly on the basis of educational performance in their respective

. They were assessed against four indicators for education – gender parity, physical facilities,

student–teacher ratio The student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio refers to the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers or staff in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that ...

and retention.

References

External links

* http://www.alifailaan.pk {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210055932/https://www.alifailaan.pk/ , date=2022-12-10 Educational organisations based in Pakistan 2013 establishments in Pakistan 2018 disestablishments in Pakistan

Contributions

District Education Rankings

Performance of parliamentarians in education sector

See also

References

External links