The report urges strict coordination between the district, federal, and provincial governments in order to improve Pakistan’s educational infrastructure and recover lost learning.
In order to prevent disruptions to education during such calamities, experts emphasize the need to take immediate action to recover from the loss of learning during floods and develop a flood-resilient education system.
This was emphasised at the report’s release event, “Towards a Resilient Education Recovery from Pakistan’s Floods: Rapid Response Research,” which was put together by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) and the Education Champion Network (ECN).
Alongside the launch, a high-level policy discussion was held, which was hosted by PCE in association with the Malala Fund, ECN, and the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MOFEPT).
The policy roundtable on flood-resilient education system was attended by representatives from the World Bank, JICA, FCDO, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), UNICEF, and the UNDP. The report brought up a number of problems with the way education is handled in flood-affected areas. Among them are a lack of emergency response planning within the educational system and a lack of attention to students’ pervasive learning poverty.
The report urges strict coordination between the district, federal, and provincial governments in order to improve Pakistan’s educational infrastructure and recover lost learning. The need to put more emphasis on student learning than just increasing enrollment and rebuilding infrastructure is also stressed in the report.
The Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, the Government of Pakistan, and UNDP’s plan, “Pakistan Floods 2022: Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework (4RF),” includes an education section that incorporates the preliminary findings from this study.
Waseem Ajmal, Additional Secretary MOFEPT, commented on the occasion, saying, “The floods of 2022 have been devastating for Pakistan’s development. 3.6 million students were impacted in the educational system, and more than 34,000 schools were destroyed or damaged. The honourable minister will speak this week at the Education Cannot Wait for High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva to urge increased support for children affected by the floods in Pakistan.”
“All education departments, including MOFEPT, are currently working to ensure that education continues for those children affected by the floods. I therefore appreciate this report’s importance and usefulness at this critical juncture, and I especially appreciate its emphasis on restoring lost knowledge and fostering long-term resilience. I appreciate the hard work of everyone involved.”
This report highlights the need for rapid response mechanisms like a public-private partnership to help build schools at a faster pace and ensure that all girls and boys who have experienced major learning losses can rapidly keep up with learning during times of emergency.
It also suggests that no meaningful measures were taken during the decade between 2010 and 2011 to protect against disruptions in children’s education.
The author of the report, Dr. Moizza Binat Sarwar, highlighted the lack of focus on rebuilding shock-resilient infrastructure in Pakistan. During an interactive discussion, participants highlighted the need to address long-term learning losses and standardize Temporary Learning Centers (TLCs).
They also discussed the need to avoid duplication of efforts by different development partners and abandon complicated Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) in favor of a simple curriculum and assessment to facilitate the learning of affected students.