The document describes the Releasing Confidence and Creativity (RCC) early childhood development program in Pakistan. RCC works with schools, families, and communities since 2003 to enhance environments where children aged 0-8 grow up. The goal is to incorporate supports for children's holistic development. RCC takes a collaborative, localized approach through partnerships with local NGOs to develop diverse, context-specific models. Research evaluates RCC schools versus non-RCC schools on outcomes like learning, well-being, and classroom environments. RCC experiences tensions between global and local knowledge but strives to build on local strengths.

1. CIES 2009
Releasing Confidence and Creativity:
Early Childhood Development Programme in Pakistan
A collaborative and localized model of ECD programme
development and implementation
Sadaf Shallwani (Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva),
Zahra Rizvi & Arif Amin (Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan)
March 24, 2009
Shallwani, S., Rizvi, Z., & Amin, A. (March, 2009). Pakistan: A collaborative and localized model of
early child development programme development and implementation. Paper presented at the Annual
Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Charleston.
Contact: Sadaf Shallwani, Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology, Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education / University of Toronto. http://sadafshallwani.net

2. What is RCC?
• Releasing Confidence and Creativity: Early Childhood
Development Programme in Pakistan (since 2003)
• Works with schools, families, and communities to
enhance the contexts in which children aged 0-8 years
are growing up
• GOAL: Incorporate and institutionalize a range of
replicable supports for children’s overall development as
confident, capable, creative, and caring people as an
integral part of the education system and of the way
communities operate

3. RCC Objectives
1) PRE-PRIMARY AND EARLY PRIMARY SCHOOLING:
• Expand the access and improve the quality of teaching/learning in katchi
classes, and classes 1 and 2 (with an emphasis on reaching girls and poor
communities).
2) FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES:
• Develop a range of approaches which assist families and communities to
increase their knowledge and skills, and their confidence in their abilities to
support their children’s development.
3) STAKEHOLDERS AND SYSTEMS:
• Build the capacity and commitment of key stakeholders at different levels,
particularly within the education system.
4) POLICY AND ADVOCACY:
• Influence ECD policy and practice, and strengthen ECD learning networks.

4. RCC Model
RCC aims to…
• Influence the contexts (environments) in which children are growing
up so that they are supportive of children’s overall development
(family, community, school, national policy)
– Address some of the key challenges inherent in government &
community primary schools in Pakistan
• Promote approaches that support children's holistic development in
contextually appropriate ways
• Build on strengths and opportunities within the local context, and
draw upon local knowledge and experience related to early
childhood development

5. RCC Model
• Based on global ECD vision, but emphasizes
contextualization through collaborative and localized
work:
• Collaborative: Conceptualized and implemented by
local NGOs with experience and expertise in different
regions and disciplines
• Localized: Variety of approaches developed and
implemented, based on local context, culture, priorities,
needs, and strengths

6. RCC Model
Collaborative:
• Partnerships with local implementing and
technical agencies that are rich in local
knowledge
• Building on core expertise of different
organizations to ensure programmes that
are effective for children’s development in
their local contexts

7. RCC Model
Collaborating Partners:
Implementing partners
• Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS)
• Society for Community Support for Primary Education in
Balochistan (SCSPEB)
• Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES,P)
• Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan (AKHS,P)
• Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan (AKPBS,P)

8. RCC Model
Collaborating Partners (continued):
Technical partners
• Sindh Education Foundation (SEF)
– Dissemination and advocacy
• Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC)
– Capacity building of teachers and programme staff
– Urban model implementation
• Aga Khan University-Institute of Education Development (AKU-IED)
– Certificate & diploma courses (including teacher training)
• AKU- Human Development Programme (AKU-HDP)
– Advanced diploma
– Community-based parent education programme
• Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan
– Grant management, coordination, technical support
• Royal Netherlands Embassy (donor)

9. RCC Model
Localized:
• Local partners with local knowledge,
experience, expertise and long-standing
relationships with local communities,
stakeholders, and systems
• Builds on local context and knowledge
• Evolution of wide range of local models of
implementation

10. RCC Model
Localized, wide range of approaches:
• Establishing katchi (pre-school) classes in 294 local schools (in
Sindh, Balochistan, Northern Areas, and Northwest Frontier
Province): increasing access to and quality of pre-primary and
early primary classroom learning environments
• Community-based nurture centres (‘Parwarish Marqaz’)
• Integrated home visiting programme (child development, health,
physical home environment)
• Holistic community development initiatives (including adult literacy,
entrepreneurship programme, midwifery training, etc.)

15. RCC Model
Localized, wide range of approaches:
• National curriculum development and implementation
• Building capacity at all levels (including higher education for ECD
professionals)
• Promoting public awareness and awareness among key
stakeholders
• Knowledge sharing (conferences, publications, website), advocacy
and policy dialogue
• Research to explore programme effectiveness, processes and
areas for improvement, and to impact policy and practice

16. RCC Research
• Independent research studies by local
partners (quantitative and qualitative,
community/school-level and policy-level),
e.g.,
– ECD mapping
– Parent involvement
– Public institutional capacity
– Reflective assessment of teacher training
• AKF-led study: Comparing a sample of RCC
schools with a sample of non-RCC schools

17. RCC Research
• RCC Schools vs Non-RCC Schools
– School and child profiles
• Condition of schools, enrollment / retention / repetition, teacher-child
ratio (school profile)
• Child tracking (child profile)
– Classroom observation
• Classroom learning environment
• Teacher practices
– Learning achievement
• Literacy and numeracy in Class 1
– Psycho-social well-being

18. RCC Research:
Classroom Observation
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale
(ECERS, 1980, 1998)
• Adaptation for Pakistan context
• ECERS-Revised (1998)
• ECERS-Extension (more curriculum
focused)

19. RCC Research:
Classroom Observation
ECERS-R
Activities
ECERS-E
Classroom Literacy
Interaction
pedagogy Mathematics
Infrastructure
Space and
furnishings

20. RCC Research
• RCC Schools vs Non-RCC Schools
– School and child profiles
• Condition of schools, enrollment / retention / repetition, teacher-child
ratio (school profile)
• Child tracking (child profile)
– Classroom observation
• Classroom learning environment
• Teacher practices
– Learning achievement
• Literacy and numeracy in Class 1
– Psycho-social well-being

21. RCC Experience
• Opportunities and challenges when collaborating with
such a wide range of local partners
• Tensions between and among global and local
‘knowledge’
• Priorities and perspectives:
– Donor
– Programme
– Different partners
– Families, schools, and communities
• Research challenges (wide range of models, contexts,
and constantly evolving processes)

22. RCC Experience
Comments, thoughts, discussion…