Young Champions’ initiative is a programme of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). In Pakistan, it is conducted in partnership with the UNICEF Punjab office, Jahandad Society for Community Development (JSCD), and government social welfare and education departments.
Through the programme, educated youth are selected and trained to encourage families in their communities to enrol children in school.
“‘Young Champions’ … envisions involving adolescents as ‘young champions’ to become advocates and change-makers in their communities, to address gender concerns, increase girl child enrolment and decrease drop outs,” said UNICEF Education Officer Sehr Raza Qizilbash. “Over the last two years, this initiative has produced encouraging results and made a substantial contribution to UNICEF’s objective of enrolling every school-going-aged child in target districts.” (via UNGEI - Pakistan - Youth advocates help enrol of out-of-school children in Pakistan)
EU Provides Nobel Peace Prize funds for Education in Northwestern Pakistan
Islamabad/Brussels, 8 May 2013 – The European Union has provided € 300,000 from its Nobel Peace Prize money to UNICEF to support its educational activities for children affected by a lack of security in parts of northwestern Pakistan. The agreement was formalised today in Islamabad, between Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Pakistan and Dan Rohrmann, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan.
These funds, made available through the European Commission’s Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), will enable UNICEF to provide access to education for 3,000 children, including 1,500 girls in 30 schools currently operating in the Jalozai Camp, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan still failing in education of girls
Despite regular election campaign promises to deliver, economic and cultural concerns holding back action.
(via Pakistan still failing in education of girls - Asia - Al Jazeera English)
[PAKISTAN] Sindh Assembly passes resolution against corporal punishment in schools
The Sindh Assembly in Pakistan has unanimously passed a resolution against corporal punishment in both private and public schools in the Sindh province, after the issue was raised by the news channel ‘Geo News’ in one of their news programmes.
![[US] Students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls write about education (part 1 of 4)
[…] Recently, a group of students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls who had learned about the tragic events in Pakistan that had left 14-year old Malala severely wounded wrote to The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) expressing their solidarity, outrage and passion for education. Today we’d like to introduce you to each of these girls and their thoughts on education. (via Students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls write about education (part 1 of 4) | Back on Track)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/7f64124d69b8642ac44046a3b1fd05db/tumblr_mhtzmuy9681qb8rnio1_400.jpg)
[US] Students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls write about education (part 1 of 4)
[…] Recently, a group of students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls who had learned about the tragic events in Pakistan that had left 14-year old Malala severely wounded wrote to The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) expressing their solidarity, outrage and passion for education. Today we’d like to introduce you to each of these girls and their thoughts on education. (via Students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls write about education (part 1 of 4) | Back on Track)
Malala Yousafzai Announces Malala Fund to Support Girls’ Access to Education (by vitalvoices)
The Pakistani government and the United Nations’ education agency unveiled a plan today to motivate girls around the world to enroll in schools by the end of 2015.
Organizers dubbed it the “Malala Plan,” after Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old education activist who survived being shot by a Taliban gunman in October. Malala’s father, Ziauddin, attended the ceremony along with Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, who announced a $10 million in seed funding for the plan.
(via New UN plan to get girls in school boosted by Malala’s father - CSMonitor.com)
Pakistan risks missing ‘primary education for all’ target – The Express Tribune
LAHORE: With Pakistan spending only 2.3% of its GDP on education, the country is unlikely to achieve its target of ‘Universal Primary Education for All’ by 2015, states the 2012 Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report.
The 10th EFA report titled ‘Putting Education to Work’ is expected to be released globally today (Tuesday). It maintains that despite having committed itself to the particular United Nations Millennium Development Goal, Pakistan still has the second largest number of out of school children: around 5.1 million.
In post-flood Pakistan, temporary learning centres offer education amid uncertainty
With UNICEF support, a Temporary Learning Centre (TLC), or emergency tent school, has been established in the camp. One of her brothers is a regular attendee, and Luxmi has started going as well. It is the first chance she has had to go to school, and it is opening up possibilities that were previously unimaginable.
“I want to learn more. When I grow up, I can start working like girls in the cities,” she said. ”Maybe I can become a teacher. But it is difficult. I have only just learnt my alphabet and counting.”
With 60 per cent of schools in affected areas damaged, UNICEF has established 2,070 TLCs, benefiting over 100,000 children in Sindh and Balochistan. Intended to ensure that education is not interrupted, the TLCs have also attracted over 39,000 children to school for the first time, including 16,000 (via In post-flood Pakistan, temporary learning centres offer education amid uncertainty | Back on Track)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As the school term ended across Pakistan last week, proud families flocked to their children’s grade-promotion ceremonies much as they do in the United States. For a 13-year-old named Kamran Khan, the occasion promised special honors: He ranked first in his class.
But instead of attending, Kamran set himself on fire with gasoline — ashamed, his family said, that he was too poor to afford a new school uniform as he entered the seventh grade.
Even in a country where 60 percent of the population lives in deep poverty, the boy’s self-immolation raised alarm. Kamran, who died Saturday from his burns, has become a symbol of the hopelessness of families crushed by high unemployment, rising prices for staples such as wheat and skyrocketing fuel costs.
