TAKMIL-Teach A Kid, Make Individual Life

TAKMIL addresses the problem of out-of-school children in Pakistan who are missing out on education due to various socio-economic and pandemic-induced reasons. 

To solve this crisis and prevent it from exacerbating, TAKMIL proposes a cost-effective and technology-based scalable solution that is designed in accordance with the needs of multi-age children living in resource-limited communities. The solution integrates non-formal accelerated learning, online and offline education delivery systems, digital assessments, and robust progress tracking and evaluation mechanisms (based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Models) to make education accessible in these communities. 

TAKMIL's solution can transform the lives of children missing out on education across the globe by developing the skills and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century while being resilient even in the challenging and disruptive times of the pandemic.

TAKMIL addresses the problem of access and quality of education in resource-limited communities of Pakistan where children are deprived of their fundamental education rights. 

According to Pakistan Education Statistics 2016-17, there are 22.8 million out-of-school children (5-16 years) which is the second-highest in the world.  Lack of education is one of the biggest hurdles in the development of Pakistan as 40% of school-age children (6-16 Years) in Pakistan live under the dark shades of illiteracy.  According to UNESCO Institute of Statistics 2018, around 6 million (24.7 %) primary school-age children (5-9 Years) are out of school with a gender distribution of 3.6 million (31%) girls and 2.3 million (18%) boys. On top of these worrisome statistics, World Bank indicates that the pandemic has added 1 million children to the total number due to increased dropouts from schools. 

70% of these above-mentioned out of school belong to communities that lack even basic facilities and parents are only concerned about keeping their children alive. The existing private and public schools in these communities are either in far-flung areas, non-functional or unaffordable. Moreover, education is something that they are least concerned about and without it the future of these children is at stake. 

TAKMIL's solution equips the out-of-school children with literacy and digital skills through an Ed-Tech model that consists of digital content delivery, class management, digital assessment, monitoring, and performance dashboard in the following ways:

1. Establishing a Non-Formal community school with the help of a community-based facilitator who has an understanding of the education landscape in his/her region. 

2. Providing education through an Accelerated and ICT integrated Curriculum which is designed to enhance learning outcomes and digital skills among the children of diverse age groups in a short amount of time.
The curriculum consists of 3 phases: 

1. Phase I: Primary education in 12 months, 
2. Phase II: Middle school education in 18 months
3. Phase III: Higher education or technical and income-generating skills education.

Every lesson is developed through the smart integration of video lessons curated and aligned with learning objectives.The lessons are delivered through Raspberry Pi-embedded projectors and tablets powered by solar panels. We also have the system of delivering lessons through Application.

3. The learning process of each child is monitored and evaluated at regular intervals through Digital Assessments conducted via Application. The progress tracking system also integrates a machine learning platform to predict student’s performance in the future. 

TAKMIL primarily targets the out of school children between the ages of 5 to 16 years living in the remote communities of Pakistan with no affordable and functional schools nearby. 

These children, including minorities and differently-abled, are those who missed out on their chance of education due to poverty and the non-availability of government schools in their areas. They are left behind to live a substandard life similar to that of their parents and are taken away the chance to fulfill their dreams. Currently, most of them are either working with their parents to sustain themselves or wasting their time in the streets. Without education, the future of these children is at stake. 

These children could not be streamed into the formal education system due to different needs and different age groups. TAKMIL is addressing their needs in the following ways:

1. A specially designed non-formal education curriculum that follows the methodology of Teaching at the Right Level to equips them with basic primary and middle level literacy in a short time period. 
2. With the help of our local community-based facilitators, our solution makes the community understand the dire need and the importance of education for its development. 
3. Catering to cultural aspects of some remote communities, female facilitators are hired to keep the out-of-school girls in schools.
4. We also have a flexible timing system that allows the children who work with their parents to continue their education journey. 
5. Instead of providing them only basic literacy skills, we equip them with latest digital skills also which increases their eagerness to learn more and keep up with the fast-paced world. 

It is cost-effective, portable, and centralized for a remote community with no internet, electricity, buildings, and educational infrastructure.

Our Solution closely relates to the first dimension as we engage a learner who belongs to a community with limited resources and no proper education infrastructure. But, despite these challenges, the learner acquires basic primary level literacy in one year through our hybrid, Ed-tech-based education system. 

Physical schools offer them a place where they can enjoy the school environment, have face-to-face interaction with teachers, meet other students, and have new experiences, as well as digital lessons and assessments, give them exposure and a better understanding of each lesson.

We have selected "Growth" as the stage of development because TAKMIL has been working since 2017. To date, we have reached out to 2000 out-of-school children in 33 remote communities and provided basic primary level literacy to 1000 children. 

Currently, we have 19 functional schools across all four provinces of Pakistan with a current enrollment of 900 students. The proposed solution has been tested on 1000 students and produced significant outcomes. Currently, 28% of students are in Phase II after successfully Completing Phase I. We have set the mission to reach and teach 1 Million out-of-school children by 2025. For this purpose, we are in the process of expanding to more communities. 

The innovative features of the proposed solution lie in the integration of technology in educational delivery mechanisms for out-of-school children. There were various Ed-techs prior to the pandemic and more emerged afterward to provide education in the digital aspect. However, the majority of these are designed for commercial purposes, are costly and require internet. These are unable to be adopted by a child who lives in a remote community without basic facilities let alone the internet. 

The physical setup of the school offer the underserved children a place where they can enjoy the school environment, have to face to face interaction with teachers, meet other students, and study without worry and disturbance. Along with this, the digital lessons give them exposure and a better understanding of each lesson. The integration of technology develops the skills and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century. 

We believe that the proposed solution could be a game-changer in solving the crisis of out-of-school children not only in Pakistan but globally as well.

Currently, we are serving 900 out of school children and 33 facilitators making a total number of 933 beneficiaries. 

In one year we plan to serve an additional number of 500 out-of-school children and 13 new facilitators along with the current number of people we are serving making a total of 1446 beneficiaries. 

In five years, we plan to serve 2000 out-of-school children, along with 60 new facilitators along with the current number of people we are serving to make a total of 2993 beneficiaries. 

Moreover, we have set our mission to reach 1 Million out-of-school children in the next five years for which we are in the process of collaborating with other education organizations working on similar issues. 

We measure our progress in the following ways: 

1. The number of out of school children reached 
2. The number of communities served
3. The number of facilitators hired 
4. The number of students who completed Phase I
5. The number of students who complete Phase II
6. The number of students who get enrolled into formal schools 
7. The number of training sessions attended by the facilitators 

Total Staff: 47

Full-Time: 5

Part-Time: 42

Contractors: 0

Each member of the team is passionately working for changing the lives of out-of-school children. Below mentioned are the team members with their skills and experiences

• Founder & Program Director: Dr. Shahid Qamar (Clinical Research Specialist, University of Louisville) 

• Co-founder and Program Manager: Zainab Khan (Masters in Science with 3 years of nonprofit management experience). She looks forward to taking the mission of TAKMIL to a global scale.

• Program Coordinator: Maria Alam (Bachelor in Political Science). She has experience in PR and Communications for a private school and the United States Embassy in Islamabad. 

• Assistant Program Coordinator (Balochistan and FATA): Ruqia Mir (Bachelors in Education)

• Assistant Program Coordinator (KP): Nazia Noor (Masters in Mathematics)

• Assistant Program Coordinator (Punjab and Sindh): Shazia Sarwar (Masters in English)

  • 35 well-trained and qualified Facilitators

• Program Officer Academics: Ayesha Dilawar (Masters in IR). She has more than 5 years experience of teaching and has worked on different projects of capacity building of teachers in formal and non-formal schools through online training

• Program Officer R&D: Shanza Khalid (Masters in Economics). She has worked at various non-profit organizations and is currently working on several research projects of TAKMIL.

• Program Officer Human Resource: Seemab Masood 

• Program Officer Finance: Hafiz Abdul Hannan. Working with a lot of passion and dedication he oversees financial and other significant operational tasks. 

• Program Officer Technology: Usman Ahmad (Masters in Computer Sciences)

• Research Intern: Noor-ul-Huda (Bachelors in International Relations)

Diversity: Our approach to building a diverse team is that we reach out to all types of communities irrespective of their religion or cultural background and invite them to contribute to solving the problem of out-of-school children. Currently, we can proudly claim that we have a diverse team in terms of gender, religion, and cultural background. People with diverse backgrounds are highly encouraged by TAKMIL to add their valuable contributions with appreciation. 

Equity is ensured in terms of TAKMIL's policies and practices. Equal opportunities are given to everyone on the team to thrive and take-up decision making roles. 

Furthermore, TAKMIL ensures that all team members feel valued and respected by creating a friendly and safe environment. Inclusivity is ensured and valued greatly not just in the team but amongst our beneficiaries as well as they are inclusive of girls, religious minorities, refugees, and differently-abled children.  

Solve is presenting us with an opportunity to overcome our barriers explained above. Becoming a Solver will help TAKMIL to increase its resources required to engage more underserved learners in educational activities and prevent them from becoming the victim of many social problems. 

Moreover, we want to share with the world the possible solutions for the education of out-of-school children and the challenges we have overcome in these areas through effective marketing strategies in which experts from Solve can mentor us. This type of mentorship will help us to let the world know that bringing a positive change in the lives of out-of-school children living in under-served communities is possible. 

Moreover, Solve will help TAKMIL in reaching out to the various organizations, across the world, working for a similar cause, offering inspiration and guidance, and collaborate with them for a greater and deeper impact. This will also provide a great chance to build a network with impact-minded leaders from all over the world. 

Mentorship is one of the biggest reasons due to which we want to become Solver. We are a self-made team of seven young girls who are seeking mentorships to make strategic improvements to our model to increase its effectiveness. For this purpose, we seek guidance from experts in impact measurements, legal advice, accessing relevant resources, building a strong network of supporters, and other relevant fields that can help TAKMIL in reaching out to all 22.8 million out of school children. 

More than acquiring funds for operations, every non-profit organization must a  strong team with relevant expertise that can take the entire organization to higher levels of success. For this purpose, we seek the biggest support from SOLVE in reaching out to the human capital that can become an asset of the organization by making a substantial contribution. 

We also seek advice from experts who can guide the TAKMIL team in the better management of their finances and forming strategies that can help TAKMIL in acquiring funds. In addition to this mentorship in marketing, monitoring, and evaluation and legal matters shall help TAKMIL in strengthening its education model for the out of school children. 

Lastly, since our solution is highly technology-based, we seek the valuable expertise of Solve experts who help in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the technology used in the model. 

We would like to partner with organizations that are passionate about the cause of education and can provide mentorship and support in the selected areas. 

We do not have any specific names in mind but we would like to partner with the relevant experts from any organization that can substantially help TAKMIL in making the dreams of under-served children come true. 

We would prefer the team of Solve to guide us in this process. 

The GM Prize will help TAKMIL in the integration of STEM education into its existing ICT curriculum. Furthermore, it will help TAKMIL in initiating its Phase III in which the students, completing Phase II (completing middle-level education), will be provided technical and vocational skills training centered around acquiring computer skills. 

Keeping in mind the socio-economic and education landscape of the target communities, the prize will be able to secure the future of these children by giving them the skills needed to survive in this world. 

Our solution leverage Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning Modeling to make quality education possible for all in the following ways: 

1. We strongly believe in the power of data science and data-driven strategies. We tend to make decisions based on the data for effective outcomes. 

2. Artificial Intelligence is used for monitoring attendance and keeping a record of regular students  

3. Machine Learning Modelling is currently under development. We will be using it to track the progress of each student and then predict his/her future grades. Based on these predictive results we would be able to know beforehand which factors could possibly affect the student's performance negatively and how we can mitigate this effect. The use of Machine Learning Modelling will help the students to perform to their full potential without hurdles.

We will use AI Humanity Prize to complete the development of our Data-based progress tracking system based on Machine Learning Modelling. 

Currently, we are collecting the data of the students to build a model that will predict the performance of the students. We have also tested Artificial Intelligence for monitoring the attendance of the students. We will use AI humanity Prize to build a complete system that will track the attendance of the students in an effective way. 

The targetted communities are those that are extremely poor and lack even basic facilities let alone education. Education in these communities is a dream. Children have missed their chance of going to school at the appropriate age. There are no proper infrastructure and education facilities. Given these circumstances, the proposed solution takes care of all the above-mentioned factors. 

GSR Prize will help us in reaching out to more such communities and provide education to the underserved there.