KARACHI: Interim Education Minister Rana Hussain said on Wednesday that there was a need to come up with an emergency curriculum.

She was speaking at a consultation meeting on ‘Recovery for Foundational Learning: Flood Response Sindh 2022,’ organised by the Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with UKaid and the government of Sindh at a local hotel here on Wednesday.

“We need to develop a curriculum which offers more skills than content. This curriculum should not just be aimed at children, but also help teach communities how to cope with emergencies,” she said.

“In the 21st Century we need 21st-Century skills. We need a multi-sectoral education system from all players and partners in the field who should realise that there is no need for too much literature in books to overburden students,” she said.

“If students can learn under all kinds of circumstances, why can’t we teach them what they need to learn? There is a lesson in how the children are responding to education after the floods,” she said.

Representatives from various government and private organisations participated in the meeting and shared their insights, experiences and lessons learned from their work in emergency situations.

Earlier, while sharing her presentation on the occasion, ITA CEO Baela Raza Jamil said that during times of crisis and emergencies, uninterrupted access to quality education was the right of every child.

“Committed firmly to this premise, ITA collaborated with the School Education and Literacy Department [SELD] of the government of Sindh with generous and timely support from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to address the learning emergency in Sindh. For floods emergency, a year-long project ‘Recovery for Foundational Learning: Flood Response Sindh, had ITA proposing three interventions in the flood-affected districts of Shikarpur and Ghotki in upper Sindh to ensure that no child is left behind in the 391 target affected schools of SELD,” she said.

The interventions proposed were both traditional and non-traditional covering both the relief and recovery phases of the emergency.

Educational adviser for FCDO Freya Perry shared some recommendations for future initiatives of challenges of inclusive foundational learning.

Sharing some of the initial problems hindering education during and after the floods, she said so many schools were housing families.

“The schools faced logistical challenges in reopening,” she said.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2023