Speakers

Dr. Tariq Rahman Dean School of Education Beaconhouse National University Pakistan Tariq Rahman Ph.D is presently Dean of the School of Education at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. He is also HEC Distinguished National Professor and Professor Emeritus at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University,Islamabad. From June 2007 till June 2011 he was also the Director of NIPS. He is a highly published scholar with over 93 articles in scholarly journals; 18 books; 6 encyclopedia articles; 32 contributions to books and several book reviews. His most famous book Language and Politics in Pakistan, published by Oxford (Pakistan) in 1996, remains in print and has been published by OrientBlackswan in India. His history of language-learning among the Muslims of South Asia, Language, Ideology and Power (OUP 2002), remains a landmark in the field and has also been published by the same publisher in 2008. One of his books, Denizens of Alien Worlds(OUP 2004), connects the medium of instruction with world view, poverty and politics in Pakistan. His latest book From Hindi to Urdu:A Social and Political History is a social and political history of Urdu and has been published simultaneously by Oxford (Pakistan) and Orient (India) in 2011.Dr. Rahman is the recipient of the prestigious Humboldt Research Award in 2011. The lifetime Achievement Award by the HEC in 1999; the Presidential Pride of Performance in 1995 and a number of other awards for research.   Michael T. Nettles Senior vice president ETS Policy Evaluation & Research Center USA Michael T. Nettles is senior vice president and the Edmund W. Gordon Chair of ETS's Policy Evaluation & Research Center. His publications reflect his broad interest in public policy, student and faculty access, opportunity, achievement, and assessment at both the K-12 and postsec¬ondary levels. His current professional activities include serving as a member of the National Research Council Board on Testing and Assessment (BOTA). He is a member of the Bank Street College of Education Board of Trustees. ); the Joint Advisory Board for Education Research Centers in the state of Texas; the Board of the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice (CERPP) at the University of Southern California; the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (NCIEA), Inc.; the Harvard University Medical School's Office of Diversity and Community Partnership Research Council; and the Advisory Board of the Community Links Foundation. Mr. Nettles earned his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Tennessee. He went on to receive master's degrees in political sci¬ence and higher education, and a Ph.D in education at Iowa State University. He is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar Session 372, Race and Ethnicity: Social Change through Public Awareness, 1999, and Freeman 03, East Asia-The United States: A Search for Common Values, 2000.     Zubeida Mustafa Senior Journalist contributor to Dawn Pakistan Zubeida Mustafa is a freelance journalist who writes a weekly column for Dawn, the paper with which she worked as an assistant editor from 1975 to 2009. Dawn is Pakistan’s most widely circulated and influential English language newspaper that was founded in 1947. Ms Mustafa writes on a variety of subjects but her interest has mainly been in the social sector which she has covered extensively. She has investigated in-depth issues such as education, health care, women’s empowerment, children’s rights and the lives of ordinary people. While working with Dawn, Ms Mustafa wrote editorials and also launched a number of sections which were very well received. She was in-charge of the One World Supplement which Dawn published in the early 1980s in partnership with 15 leading newspapers from all over the world. She launched and edited Dawn’s “Health Page”, “Book Page”, “Education Page”, “CareerWise”, “Encounter”, “Karachi Notebook” and most notably “Books & Authors”, the first book magazine brought out by any newspaper in Pakistan. Before she entered the world of journalism, Ms Mustafa worked at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA), Karachi as a Research Officer. Her research papers were published in Pakistan Horizon, the quarterly journal of the PIIA.   Hu Wenbin Manager, Cambridge Education China and Mongolia, Mott MacDonald Ltd China Mr. Hu has had over 25 years experience of working on education reform and development, and has strong management expertise on consultancy operation funded by donors in China. As one of the key members, he participated in series of strategic policy and regulation development for education reform in China in 1990s. He worked in the MOE of China (1986-1995) and the World Bank (1995-2000) before joining the current company. As the deputy team leader, he led the implementation of Gansu Basic Education Project (GBEP, 2000-2005) funded by DFID with focus on improving equitable access of primary education in Gansu province of China. Recently, he has just finished the management role as de facto team leader with the design and implementation of the Southwest Basic Education Project (SBEP, 2006-2011) with focus of providing equitable quality education to the poorest children in southwest part of China. As one of pioneers, he has helped to plan and develop the education consultancy service in China, and has been running the business continuously and successfully for the last 10 years. Through working in different institutions, he has developed rich experiences and strong capacity in handling strategic and technical challenges under difficult circumstances in China. He has visited more than 20 different countries for business and consultancy works.   Bernadette L. Dean Principal St. Joseph’s College for Women Pakistan Prof. Dr. Bernadette L. Dean is Principal St. Joseph’s College for Women, Karachi, Pakistan. Prior to this she served as Principal, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore, and as Professor, Head, Academic and Student Affairs and Team Leader of the Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Pakistan, Programme at the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development, Karachi. She has a PhD in education from the University of Alberta, Canada. She has had both teaching and leadership positions at all educational levels (kindergarten to university) and has identified and implemented ways to improve the quality of education at each level. Her teaching and research interests are in curriculum development, social studies education, citizenship education and action research. She has presented her research at many national and international conferences and has published widely in academic journals and edited books. In addition, she facilitated the development of the framework for the National Curriculum 2006 and worked with teams to understand and write the curriculum for a number of subjects. Her publications include social studies textbooks for primary classes, teaching learning resources entitled “Creating a Better World: Education for Citizenship, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution” and “Creating child-friendly classroom: Positive disciplining strategies” and materials to support active citizenship among the youth entitled, “Youth in elections: voting for your future” and “Youth and Civic participation: Holding government accountable”.   Rukmini Banerji Director ASER Centre Senior Member of Pratham's national leadership team India Rukmini Banerji has been with Pratham for the last 15 years. Pratham is a non-governmental organization working in elementary education in 16 states in India (www.pratham.org). Pratham's mission is "every child in school and learning well". To this end, Pratham teams work to design and implement learning programs. This is done directly with rural and urban communities as well as with schools systems. Since 2005, Rukmini also heads the team that carries out the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and is Director of ASER Centre (www.asercentre.org). Rukmini has a Phd from the University of Chicago and worked at the Spencer Foundation in the US before returning to India in 1996 and joining Pratham.   Dr Gordon MacLeod Freelance Educational Developer Australia Gordon MacLeod is a happily partially-retired freelance educational developer, evaluator and researcher. Most recently, he has been International Education Adviser to the Commonwealth Education Trust for which he carried out work in Australia, Ghana, India and Zanzibar. Until 2008, he was the founding Director of the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) in East Africa and the Principal of the AKU Tanzania Institute of Higher Education. Previously he had served as Director of the AKU-IED in Karachi, Pakistan working in all areas of Pakistan as well as into Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda. Beforemoving to Pakistan he held a variety of senior research, teaching, academic and institutional leadership positions in Australia and the UK. He was appointed as a full Professor in 1990. His lifelong research interests have been in teacher learning, teacher education and development. He has a particular interest in improvement of the quality of teaching in the world’s developing countries.   Dr Iffat Farah Freelance Educational Developer Australia Iffat Farah has worked in the education sector in Pakistan for thirty years. Until 2009, she was a Professor at the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED). This included two years at AKU-IED, Eastern Africa. She has also worked at the GhulamIshaq Khan University, the University Grants Commission and the University of Baluchistan. Iffat’s research and teaching interests have focused on school improvement policy and practice in Pakistan. While at AKU-IED she led the establishment of a unit for Research and Policies Studies. Iffat now lives in Australia but continues her professional interest in school improvement processes in Pakistan and other developing countries.   Leah Verghese Specialist, Advocacy and Communication Azim Premji Foundation India Leah is a graduate of National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She began her career as an in-house counsel with ITC Limited for four years advising its various business divisions. She joined the School Choice Campaign of the Centre for Civil Society in Delhi, where she handled advocacy and research around issues of education. She also managed the School Choice Campaign's School Vouchers for Girls project in north-east Delhi. She now works with the Azim Premji Foundation in their Advocacy and Communication team. She is a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellow for Leadership Development.   Junko Miyahara Coordinator, Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) Singapore Junko Miyahara is the Coordinator of the Asia Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) since August 2008. She coordinates overall programmes of the Network and manages the Secretariat operation. Her work involves strategic planning and development, technical assistance and oversight, as well as representation and partnership building. Ms. Miyahara also serves as a board member of the Consultative Group on ECCD (2011-13). Prior to this, Ms. Miyahara has worked for UNICEF (2001-09) where her career has grown into early childhood development in the Asia-Pacific region in the areas of policy advocacy, programme development and evaluation, and capacity building. She served as regional ECD focal point of UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, and also worked in Malaysia, Thailand, Mongolia, and Cambodia offices in the areas of early childhood development, education and child protection.   Amima Sayeed Teachers’ Resource Centre Pakistan – ECE/ECD Amima Sayeed is the Senior Manager at Teachers’ Resource Centre where she is engaged in ECCE advocacy and research. She was also on TRC’s writing team for National Curriculum on ECE 2007. Since starting her career 12 years ago, Amima has diversified her professional portfolio by moving from pure academic research to monitoring, evaluation and planning in education. She has conducted numerous sector diagnosis and large scale research studies on aspects related to quality education in public sector, teacher education, and institutional functioning. She has been a part of core team of Annual Status for Education Report (ASER, Pakistan) since 2007. As an aspiring learning activist, she focuses on reclaiming common sense, creativity and wisdom from McCauley's brand of factory schooling. Amima seeks ways of creating alternative spaces for dialogue, reflection and action. For her living is learning and she believes every one can take charge of his or her own ‘learning journey.’   Sujatha Muthayya Associate Director School Choice Campaign India Sujatha started her career as a research associate at Centre for Civil Society. After her teaching stint at Madras Christian college and her master's at LSE, her work has spanned rural business incubation at IIT Madras, a platform for impact investment at intellecap and helping professor James Tooley build his chain of low cost schools in Hyderabad. She is now back with CCS to head the school choice campaign. She focuses on school choice and accountable education.   Kate Anderson Simons Monitoring & Evaluation Consultant Brookings Institution, Center for Universal Education USA Kate Anderson Simons is a Monitoring & Evaluation Consultant at the Brookings Institution, Center for Universal Education in Washington, DC. In this role, she is working to convene a task force to develop a global system for measuring learning. These learning metrics will engage an array of actors to ensure that education and learning feature prominently in the global development agenda. Prior to her position at Brookings, she was an Education Consultant for a number of education initiatives. She has consulted on domestic and international education projects for organizations including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, GRACE Association Pakistan, Child Trends, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, District of Columbia Public Schools, and the University of Cincinnati. Ms. Simons holds a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Pepperdine University.   Arif Naveed Senior Research Associate, Sustainable Development Policy Institute Islamabad, Pakistan Arif Naveed is Senior Research Associate at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad. He specializes in the issues of education and poverty in Pakistan. As a visiting faculty member, he teaches human development at the International Islamic University, Islamabad. Previously, he worked at the Mahbub-ul-Haq Human Development Center and contributed to the 2008 South Asia Human Development Report. He also served as the Team Leader for Pakistan chapter of the Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP). Prior to starting a research career, he was based at the National Rural Support Programme and implemented large scale rural development projects. He holds a Masters degree in Economics from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and a Master of Research in International Development from the University of Bath, UK.   Ali Moeen Nawazish Founder StepUP Pakistan Mr Nawazish is a graduate in the Politics, Psychology and Sociology Tripos from the University of Cambridge, with a specialization in Politics. He attempted 23 A Level exams scoring 22 A's whilst building a world record. He is also a recipient of the President's Award for Pride of Performance from the Government of Pakistan which is one of the highest civil awards in the country. He is currently working as a Youth Ambassador at Geo/Jang group. He is the founder of StepUP Pakistan, an organization established to promote education in Pakistan.   Tayyabba Tamim Associate Professor Centre for Research in Economics and Business Lahore School of Economics Dr Tayyaba Tamim is Associate Professor and Research Fellow at Centre for Research in Economics and Business at Lahore School of Economics. She has Masters in English Literature from University of Punjab, Masters in ELT from Kinnaird and Diploma in ELT from Punjab University. As a British Council Chevenning scholar she did her MPhil in Second Language Research from Cambridge University UK, and was awarded a fully funded scholarship from RECOUP (Research Consortium for Educational Outcomes and poverty) to do her PhD with Cambridge University. She has over 16 years of teaching experience. Prior to joining Lahore School of Economics she was working with Centre of English language Aga Khan University. She has also taught research courses to Mphil ELT students at Kinnaird College. Her research interests include education, poverty and capability approach to development and more specifically, language policy and language education and the interconnected issues of gender and class based marginalization. Nadeem Irshad Kayani Programme Director Directorate of Staff Development Lahore, Pakistan Mr Nadeem Irshad Kayani has been the Programme Director for the Punjab Directorate of Staff Development since January of 2010. Prior to that, in the year 2009, he was General Manager for Institutional development at the Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company. Mr Kayani was the District Coordinating Officer (DCO) of Nankana Sahib, Punjab in the year 2008. R Nadeem Irshad Kayani holds an Masters degree in Globalization and Development from Warwick University.   Ambreen Raza Ph.D Managing Director Punjab Education Foundation, Punjab Pakistan Ambreen Raza, joined the Civil Service of Pakistan as a DMG officer in 1994. She is a Civil Servant with 18 year if diverse sectoral experiences ranging from management, finance, development, planning, health and education. A senior level official in BS-20, she is currently the Managing Director of Punjab Education Foundation (PEF), which is an autonomous body setup to maximize enrollment and minimize dropout rate for school going children in Punjab. The organization operates in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode and has enrolled 1.1 Million school going children through a network of over 2000 schools. Within the span of a year she has proven her leadership by focusing on the Education Voucher Scheme of PEF and has enhanced its outreach by expanding the program. Her work has been recognized by international organizations such as World Bank and DFID.   Yamini Ayiar Director Accountability Initiative Centre for Policy Research India Yamini Aiyar is Director Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research. Yamini Aiyar has extensive experience working on issues related to strengthening public service delivery systems by institutionalizing accountability mechanisms through greater citizen participation. Her work emphasizes action research to try and better understand the effectiveness of accountability tools. Prior to the Accountability Initiative, Yamini has worked at the World Bank, New Delhi Office and the Ford Foundation, New Delhi. Yamini has an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and received an M.A. degree in Social and Political Sciences at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University, UK. She also holds a BA degree in Philosophy from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University.   Aziz Kabani Director Programs Operation and Research Sind Education Foundation Pakistan Mr. Aziz Kabani is currently doing his doctorate (Ed.D.) from the Institute of Education, University of London. He has a Masters of Science degree in Education Research Methodology from the University of Oxford, UK. Mr. Kabani also participated in Graduate Program in Islamic Studies and Humanities in London. Mr. Kabani has been working in the Education sector for the past 12 years and is currently designated as Director POR, (Programs Operation and Research) at the Sindh Education Foundation, Government of Sindh.   Salaeya Butt Research Manager Society for Advancement of Education Pakistan Salaeya Butt is a research analyst in the field of education in Pakistan with a special focus on data analysis of national and provincial education databases. She has been involved in research design, developing research tools, and training data collection team according to quantitative and qualitative data analysis needs of different studies such as Punjab Examination Commission evaluation (DFID), Statistical Profiles of Out of School Children (UIS), Evaluation of Girls Education Interventions(Population Council), Situational Analysis of Gender Disparities in Education (UNICEF) and Punjab Education Foundation Trainings Evaluation (World Bank). Salaeya holds a Masters in International Development Management from University of Westminster, London.   Ravish Amjad Research and Policy Analyst ASER Pakistan Ravish Amjad has done her BSc (hon) and MSc in Economics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences. She is working in Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi since early 2011, as a Research and Policy Analyst. She has been a major part in researches such as mini-SchoolTELLS and Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Pakistan. She has also worked on numerous academic research articles and reports.   Rahila Fatima Senior Manager, Academics and Training The Citizens Foundation Pakistan Rahila Fatima is presently associated with The Citizens Foundation (TCF) as Senior Manager, Academics and Training. Her portfolio includes working at policy and programmes review level; conceptualizing and designing educational material development programmes; and coordinating with regional team for nation-wide programme implementation. She also coordinates an internal team that design tools and systems to monitor and evaluate TCF Schools. Prior to this, Rahila worked with Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES,P) in capacities of lecturer in English and Head of Humanities. Rahila has two post-graduate degrees, a MA in English Literature and in Linguistics from University of Karachi and a one-year diploma in Social Enterprise Management from LUMS-McGill.   Dr Attaullah Wahidyar General Director Ministry of Education Afghanistan Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar is currently the Senior Policy Programme Advisor and General Director Communication and Publications Ministry of Education, a position he has held since July 2011. Among his numerous responsibilities within the Ministry, Dr. Wahidyar's main responsibilities include providing the Minister with strategic policy advice on issues in the education sector and managing various policy development forums to ensure maximum participation of stakeholders in the policy development process. In recognition of his services in education sector Dr.Wahidyar is awarded the 2nd highest civil award of Afghanistan (Mir Masjidi Khan Medal) with an honorary Ministerial award from Minister of Education and a medal of recognition for his anti corruption work by Government of Kazakhstan.   Kasim Kasuri CEO Beaconhouse School System (BSS) Kasim Kasuri has been Chief Executive Officer of the Beaconhouse School System since 2004. Established in 1975, Beaconhouse is one of the largest private school networks in the world with over 180,000 students in eight countries. Kasuri is passionate about change in the educational status-quo and has been involved in a number of radical school initiatives including the establishment of TNS Beaconhouse - a “school of tomorrow” based in Lahore, Pakistan, which espouses project-based, experiential learning. He is also actively involved in the development of the school network across Asia, Middle East and Europe. From 1996 to 2004, Kasuri was Chief Executive Officer of Beaconhouse-Informatics, a large chain of IT institutes in Pakistan offering corporate training and IT degrees. Kasuri completed his Bachelor's degree in 1994 from Tufts University in Massachusetts, USA, followed by a Master's degree from the Lahore School of Economics in 1996.