A group of four girls writing on paper at a blue table.

High-Quality Basic Education for Students in Sindh .

Education | Advancing Quality Education
Asia

Sindh Reading Program

Project Dates: January 2014 - January 2019
Sindh, Pakistan’s second largest province, has made recent economic progress, but its education indicators are still low, with about 4 million children ages 5 to 12 not in school.

One-third of the population above the age of 10 in Pakistan’s Sindh Province is illiterate, and about 30 percent of school-aged children do not currently have regular access to education. To address this gap in early-grade reading and numeracy, USAID’s Sindh Reading Program worked to improve the quality of and access to education in the province. Building on baseline reading assessments conducted in 2014, the project created a teacher professional development program that uses SMS technology as well as onsite teaching-and-learning associates to support teachers in the classroom. Other project efforts focused on developing age-appropriate reading materials in both Sindhi and Urdu that students can access in schools, in libraries, and at home.

28,340

children enrolled or re-enrolled in the education system

10

public libraries constructed or refurbished

432,124

students receiving reading interventions at primary level

Project Goals


  • Bring local groups, government counterparts, and international partners together to collaborate on improving reading and numeracy skills
  • Pair teachers with teaching-and-learning associates to create a strong foundation for teachers’ professional development
  • Renovate local libraries into more welcoming spaces for young readers by increasing the selection of books and hiring female library assistants to encourage women’s and children’s participation in these spaces
  • Work with communities to engage more families in supporting the value of early-grade literacy

Our Impact Building Blocks for a New Education Landscape in Sindh

A nuanced approach that targets learning materials, teacher training, instructional review, and an innovative formative assessment technique has the potential to reshape the way reading is taught in Pakistan.

One-third of the population above the age of 10 in Pakistan’s Sindh Province is illiterate, and about 30 percent of school-aged children do not currently have regular access to education. To address this gap in early-grade reading and numeracy, USAID’s Sindh Reading Program worked to improve the quality of and access to education in the…

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Image of three girls sitting at a school desk and pointing at words on individual learning materials marked "USAID."

Our Impact A New Kind of Sindhi Story for Children in Pakistan

After a learning material gap-analysis study revealed a lack of children’s books in the Sindhi language in Pakistan, local publishers are creating more child-friendly stories.

One-third of the population above the age of 10 in Pakistan’s Sindh Province is illiterate, and about 30 percent of school-aged children do not currently have regular access to education. To address this gap in early-grade reading and numeracy, USAID’s Sindh Reading Program worked to improve the quality of and access to education in the…

Read Impact Story
Image of a woman showing a picture of a bottle to schoolchildren.
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Image of a student looking off-camera overlaid with a drawn image of a chameleon and question marks.

Sindh Reading Program

A partnership between the Sindh provincial government and USAID has helped more than 100,000 students improve their reading and comprehension skills by investing in their teachers’ professional development

A close-up image of a hand pointing to an image of an elephant in a children's book.

Formative Assessments in Sindh

This short documentary film illustrates the concept of Formative Assessment, and how the USAID Sindh Reading Program is using this tool to transform the traditional public primary schools in Pakistan's Sindh province.

A teacher providing instruction in a classroom.

Early Grade Reading Assessments

The government in Pakistan’s Sindh province used results from a baseline survey of public schools to increase literacy rates and improve the quality of education.

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