Preparatory Workshop for Annual Status of Education Report Pakistan
From 6th-10th August, 2008, the South Asian Forum for Educational Development (SAFED), in collaboration with the Institute of Education and Research (IER) at the Punjab University, and Children’s Resource International (CRI) Pakistan, held a five days workshop on measuring learning levels for 5-14 year olds in households across Pakistan. The workshop was be conducted by a highly experienced team from Pratham and ASER Institute India comprising of Dr.Rukmini Banerji, Dr.Wilima Wadhwa and their five field colleagues. More than 50 participants attended the workshop, representing all four corners of the country, including the Northern Areas, on a self-financed basis to become the frontline mobilizers of ASER Pakistan. The workshop was designed to serve as a precursor to a national survey by the name of ASER Pakistan which is to be conducted in October, 2008.
The South Asian Forum for Education Development (SAFED) is an education forum for Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives and Burma. SAFED in Urdu means white, the color of PEACE. Education and learning is a powerful platform, to recognize and celebrate diversity across and within borders. SAFED is a forum to foster policy dialogues between public sector, civil society organizations and private sector working jointly for learning solutions to reduce poverty through Quality Education for All.
SAFED was proposed at the Alliance for Education Development (AfED)'s conference, entitled “Local Governance Texts and Contexts: Perspectives from South Asia” held in February 2006 in Lahore. It was officially launched on February 2, 2006 and was endorsed by the Minister of Education, Government of Punjab, present at the Conference as the Chief Guest
MISSION
Creating an Active South Asian LEARNING and EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE CORRIDOR in Education and its common challenges for the region.
GOALS
SAFED has been established to
i) Seek contemporary and contextually relevant solutions to critical education bottlenecks to realize Quality Education for All.
ii) Generate world class body knowledge as valuable intellectual capital for sharing across the region and the world and,
iii) Provide healing through knowledge and experience based border crossings for humanity (children, youth and adults) engaged in rethinking of education and learning as a life long (sustainable) and non discriminatory fundamental human right.
OBJECTIVES
To promote regional partnerships for learning and policy solutions.
To create a critical mass for education discourse and policies for education, learning and active citizenship in South Asia.
To build capacities of public sector and civil society organizations to develop, manage, and implement education policies.
To promote research, indigenous knowledge systems, sharing of experiences and successful implementation strategies.
To build linkages between research and practice to inform policy and timely access to information for decision makers.
To accelerate implementation of nationally-driven education policies, programs through hybrid synergistic solutions for girls education, linkages of higher & basic education, local governance, sustainable development, eliminating child labor through education, promoting Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for EFA, meeting access and quality through public private partnerships, fostering cross country researches, and other areas of mutual interest
To improve quality of data available for decision making to meet national and international targets/goals.
To include rural/government teachers and critical voices of beneficiaries, i.e.children and parents,
The above mentioned objectives may be modified and/or enhanced over time as SAFED evolves and accommodates to new phases in and emerging global environment.
