Dr Shireen Zafarullah

Patron in Chief:

Dr Shireen Zafarullah

(PhD, Home Economics, University of the Punjab)

Mrs Nasreen Khalid Chima

Honorary Patron:

Mrs Nasreen Khalid Chima,

(MSc, Home Economics, University of the Punjab)

Zara Zafarullah Salman

Executive Committee General Secretary:

Zara Zafarullah Salman,

(MEd.,University of Exeter, UK)

Mrs Irfana Javed

Executive Committee:

Mrs Irfana Javed,

(Principal, Umeed School, Zaman Park, Lahore)

Mrs Zahida Rana

Executive Committee:

Mrs Zahida Rana,

(Principal, Amal School, Tulspura, Lahore)

Ms Neelam Ali

Executive Committee:

Ms Neelam Ali,

(Principal, Herbert Primary School, Shah Jamal)

Mr Imam Din

Coordinator:

Mr Imam Din

(Staff Officer, Wasil Trust Adoption Program, Bahawalnagar)

Review of Skill Development Activity Books and Readers

Less-Priveleged children require a Head Start in the development of their pre-literacy skills.

Umeed Preschool Program identifies four stages of these essential skills and has developed 10 activity books and 3 readers for the pre-literacy of Urdu, English and Mathematics. At the end of the program, which usually can be completed in one academic year, the learner who has missed out on many pre-literacy experiences at home, can get a head-start and confidently start formal schooling.

In fact, these activities provide a kick-start for an adult literacy program as well!

Level Zero

This is the orientation workbook which introduces the world of literacy and lifelong learning to the child. All essential print forms in Urdu, English and Numbers are introduced to the learner at this stage. The learner is able to grip the pencil and move the hand freely while being introduced to the print forms of different shapes, letters and numbers.

In general, a four year old spends around 6 to 8 weeks at this level.

Level One

Once the learners get familiar with the print form and have good hand-eye coordination in using pencils, they start Level One. In this level the learners are introduced to the names/shapes of the letters of the Urdu Alphabet, English Alphabet and the first 15 numbers.  Divided into 9 units this level is generally assessed weekly and completed in 3 months.

Level Two

Once the learner is familiarised with the shapes of alphabets, the learner is made to understand the different sounds of these alphabets. At this stage phonics are introduced. In this way Capital letters in the English alphabet and the Complete letter shapes of the Urdu alphabet are taken as the names of the letters, whereas the small letters in English and the half shapes (aadhi ashkaal) of the Urdu letters are termed as the SOUNDS or PHONICS of these letters.  The learner is guided to recognize the different sounds of these letters especially the vowel sounds and how these vowels change the sounds when joined to different letters. This is a very crucial stage in the literacy process.

In Maths, the numbers and their sequence continue till a hundred, with names in English and Urdu reinforcing the language skill. Very simple addition and subtraction are started.

Divided into 9 units this level is generally assessed weekly and completed in 2.5 months.

Level 3

This level is the culmination of the preliteracy process and makes the learner ready to take on formal schooling. Word and short sentence formation in both Urdu and English are the target and in Maths the learner has essential skills of greater and smaller, graphs and counting in 2s or 3s.

Divided into 9 units this level is generally assessed weekly and completed in 2.5 months.

Readers

Three readers are also available as reference, reinforcement and review of all that is learnt.

English Reader for Levels 1 and 2

English Reader for Level 3

Urdu Reader

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.