Enhancing Quality, Access and Learning (EQUAL) is a two year project of Care International Pakistan which is implemented in partnership with Mountain Institute of Education and Development (MIED) in the earthquake affected district of Abbottabad, North West Frontier Province.

Since 2005 earthquake response, CARE has continuously supported the earthquake affected area through various activities and education was one of the focused sectors. Community participation in education delivery has not been widely practiced in Pakistan. People have very little understanding of the roles they can play in educational quality and access. There is generally a lack of understanding about how communities can become more involved in the educational processes. Many of the schools in Abbottabad contain multi-grade classrooms where teachers have a tendency to focus on older students to the determent of younger ones.

The project is working in 20 government primary schools (10 girls’ schools and 10 boys’ schools) in six Union Councils (Dalola, Boye, Kukmang, Pattan Qala, Namal and Bakot) of district Abbottabad. The project aims at:

• Enhancing the capacity of PTCs and parents groups to contribute to quality education,
• Empower communities to effectively participate in decision making processes related to education, and
• Enhance the linkage and coordination between local communities and local government line departments.

Initiated in January 2009, the project developed its curriculums and modules for PTC and the first PTC training for each 20 PTCs took place. The trainings were conducted at the schools that fall into the targeted UCs so that members do not have to travel long way. There are three follow-up/ refresher trainings planned within the project period by adjusting its contents based on their understandings and challenges they face.

Furthermore, a group of 20 parents (10 fathers and 10 mothers), were formed and their first trainings were conducted in Participatory Rapid Assessment. The members in the group were selected by getting the consensus and vote of all the community and PTCs members. Formation of parents group is aimed at end enhancing their capacity with skills and knowledge so that they are able to actively contribute in improving their schools is the real aim. It was ensured during these trainings that participation from the women side must be as representative and meaningful as it will be from the male side. Training content and methodology were carefully designed to suit the women needs and capacities.

Moreover, Sensitization workshops were carried out to enable the community and PTC to understand their roles and responsibilities in educational quality and access. Multiple sessions were carried out in each community to enable them to understand on the same ground and have opened up new spaces for the community members to think about the way forward.

Each interlinked activities are to create a concrete foundation for the communities through learning process so that the communities, especially women and girls, are empowered to address issues related to education.