Releasing Confidence and Creativity (RCC) - Pakistan

The RCC programme concentrates on encouraging innovation and developing techniques that can be replicated by government and NGO partners. For these reasons, the provincial governments have been closely involved in the planning and support of the programme. At the conclusion of the programme, the goal is to have created several sustainable, replicable models that both the government and other NGOs can draw on as they institutionalise child-centred katchi classrooms.

Another RCC strategy is on engaging the community in ECD, as evidenced by the programme actions:

• Capacity-building activities that seek to foster an understanding of ECD concepts and teaching techniques within individual classrooms, schools, communities, local governments, and implementing NGO partners. Activities include providing training, developing materials, and arranging study tours/exchange visits.
• Improving the physical learning space as an avenue for engaging communities in taking an interest in other aspects of their children's learning context.
• Community-level interventions, such as awareness campaigns, that focus on promoting the importance of ECD and encouraging their greater participation in schools.
• Training for local governments and school officials, including programme orientations and exchange of programme achievements, designed to build capacity to support the efforts of NGO partners and to take lessons to scale.
• Dissemination of lessons learned and policy dialogue for education reform through an ECD magazine, website, posters, and brochures (in development). These media will be designed to address the need to raise connect groups interested in ECD and help set the stage for the continued promotion of ECD in Pakistan.

In Balochistan, the core implementation of school- and community-based activities is carried out by Society for Community Support for Primary Education in Balochistan (SCSPEB). Working in the districts of Ziarat, Pishin, Killa Abdullah, Mastung, and Chagi, SCSPEB has conducted a one-day workshop to raise awareness about the importance of ECD among local governments and education departments. The organisation has also held various meetings to raise awareness and build support for RCC, and has carried out training sessions for katchi class teachers, caretaker teachers, and cluster supervisors on ECD teaching methodologies and curriculum implementation.

Early Childhood Development, Education.

Balochistan and Sindh are provinces in the south of Pakistan with high levels of poverty. RCC grew out of the identification of weaknesses in policies on early childhood education (ECE) in these areas. AKFP's education programme manager comments that "We have identified a gap that needs to be filled with a national policy". For this reason, ideas for the formulation of a national ECD and ECE policy were on the agenda of an August 2003 meeting.