The aim of the program is to develop  interventions that attract, sustain and retain primary school children to school, enabling them to complete Primary Education.

1: Preschool Program

Less Privileged Children need a Headstart to be ready for school

No public education program in Pakistan has addressed this very crucial need of these children.

Umeed Preschool Program has catered to this need for a Headstart by tackling the handicaps with a multi dimensional approach.

A: Pre Literacy Skills

The program covers three core subjects  URDU, ENGLISH & MATHS

Each subject has four levels of learning skills, to be completed within one academic year at the pre-school level.

Level 0- Introduction to Print forms;

Level 1- Shape Recognition,

Level 2 – Sound Recognition ,

Level 3 – Word Formations.

Readers are provided to enhance learning

The books are full of activities to make the work interesting, along with developing useful art skills

B: Concepts of the physical and Human world

To fully comprehend  the information in their books, the children need to be aware of basic concepts around them.

The program features four concept flip books

• OUR WORLD
• HUMAN WORLD
• ANIMAL WORLD
• PLANT WORLD

The flip book while the children are viewing the images on the other side. This a very economical and practical way of sharing audio-visual knowledge

Regular assessments have been designed to measure the student learning of these new concepts

C:  Language skills and  values  education

The children are regularly shown jan cartoon videos which help them improve their urdu language skills along with learning important human values and relationships.

Nursery rhymes and songs are played to the children to help develop important speech and musical skills

All the three aspects of the preschool program are fitted into the school timetable so that they are covered daily

D: Thinking Skills

All activities in the Umeed Program generate thinking skills. This is done by providing multiple choice activities, joining, matching and colouring the right options or filling the blanks. No activity demands rote learning and children are encouraged to question what they are learning

E: Monitoring

The content of the program has been divided into manageable units which are completed in a week’s time and then assessed the following week .

The program coordinator visits two schools daily to conduct these assessments which are printed and sent from the head office. The answer sheets are sent back to the head office for tabulation and analysis of the results, which gauge the performances of both the students, teachers as well as the performance of the overall school

2 : Follow through

World over, the impact of the Headstart program was not sustained for too long as the effects of the training wore off in primary classes. A follow through program brings continuity to the headstart program and diminishes dropouts. Two interventions have been designed to augment student learning and critical thinking that were introduced in the preschool to follow through in their primary classes

• Library

A collection of story books and general knowledge books are provided to the schools. The books are categorized into three reading levels. To monitor the library time, the coordinators make a weekly note of which books the children have read

• Video lessons

Video lessons covering the science and social studies topics of the Classes 3,4 and 5 are shown regularly and assessed with short tests.

Less Privileged Children need a Headstart to be ready for school

No public education program in Pakistan has addressed this very crucial need of these children.

Umeed Preschool Program has catered to this need for a Headstart by tackling the handicaps with a multi dimensional approach

                                                Background:

Umeed Enrichment Program (UEP) was developed as a Head-Start for less privileged pre-school children by Dr. Shireen Zafarullah. In her doctoral research (1996) she discovered that the deprived children inherited many handicaps from their un-stimulating environment; and that they needed special experiences to reduce or overcome them.

These handicaps are found in the area of

• Skill development
• Concept development
• Language development

After entering school these children are faced with another tragedy – rote learning. These students are not required to think independently or to use their minds so they stop thinking on their own. Hence they can easily be indoctrinated and can become playthings or robots in the hands of others.

New teaching strategies can rekindle the thinking part of the young minds which tends to otherwise stagnate because of rote learning.

                                                Our Mission:

The purpose of this early intervention is to:

• Remove the handicaps and prepare the children for school;
• Bridge the gap between children of different classes;
• Enhance school enrolment;
• Reduce drop out rate among them.
• Develop essential thinking skills

                                                  Our Vision:

The tragedy of our public school systems is rote learning. This program is highly specialized as unlike the usual rote learning program it provides children with opportunities to think for themselves. They are given options to choose from and decide for themselves. Thus empowering them to learn on their own and develop a very crucial thinking skill – curiosity. The vision is to develop questioning minds and keen learners.

Dr Shireen Zafarullah says: One cannot grow trees in flower pots. Learning to read and write is not the only goal of education. Education must also develop a sophisticated language and realistic concepts. In other words it should advance a person’s knowledge of the world around him and help in the development of an independent, confident, and wholesome personality.