CCHD and Community Development
Education is the most basic human right and essential for the development and empowerment of the people. Governments in Pakistan have been aware of the importance of education but failed in long term strategic planning and provision of sufficient budgets. Mostly education budget remained as mere 1 or 2 percentage of the GDB, which ofcourse is insufficient to meet the needs of the eighth most populas country of the world.
CCHD’s Focus
CCHD in 1996 realized that the communites it is trying to serve (mainly labour colonies and unsettled communites) will not be able to develop and become empowered untill educational needs of the communites are met. At the same time government of Pakistan planned to open up 80,000 community based home schools for the poor and drop out children.
In the first phase from 96-97, some 7,000 schools were opened up in collobaration with the NGOs. CCHD also got schools for the katchi Abadies of Lahore and villages of Kasur District.
Today CCHD is running 228 of these communities schools and have focused to only impart primary education to poor children but have imaprted periodical training to teachers to mprove their teaching capabilities, organized mothers as monitoring committees of the schools, established environmental clubs for students and organized teachers as community leaders.
CCHD’s Achievements
- At present, 228 non-formal schools are being run by the CCHD and its affiliate. CCHD is running 52 schools in Lahore district and 43 in Islamabad. The other two affiliates, Urban Community Development Programme (UCDP) and JAGRATI are running 83 schools in Lahore district and 50 schools in Kasur district respectively. Presently there are a of total 8029 students enrolled in our NFBE schools, out of this there are 4365 female students and 3664 male students.
- In 1998, CCHD arranged for 350 teachers to take the New PTOC course through Allama Iqbal Open University to enhance teacchers educational qualification.
- Aside from endowing students with curriculum-based education, NFBE schools tends to make them better citizens by sensitizing them about relevant issues like environment, health, through school and community seminars, etc. through school and community seminars. 228 Nature Clubs have been established in NFBE schools for students, which run environment-management drives, actively participate in tree-plantation drives and mobilize communities on solid waste management and other environmental issues.
- Apart from education, the NFBE project also includes holding awareness raising workshops on issues like human rights, health, environment, sanitation, political rights and legal rights for its teachers. The Network of 228 Non-Formal Teachers, besides aiming to foster community development, focuses on enhancing awareness concerning the need for education.
- To keep in touch with the community and the students’ parents, NFBE schools have established 255 Mothers Committees. Each Mother’s Committee consists of 5 to 8 women through whom the organizations remains in touch with 1530 women. These committees are essential to address any problems that may arise in the running of the schools and to involve the community at large in the literacy initiative of the NFBE project. An interesting suggestion made by one of Mothers’ Committees was that a monthly or quarterly medical camp should be held in areas which have non-formal schools so as to provide medical facilities to attending students.
- The passing result of the schools is around 78% since the beginning, which is almost doubled compared to the public shcools.
- So far CCHD has enrolled around 82,000 children in its non formal education programme.
- There is a clear difference between formal and non-formal education. However, considering the limitations, non-formal education provides a feasible and practical opportunity to enhance literacy rates in poor countries.