Sayyeda Numrah Bokhari, Education Champion

Training female teachers to improve the quality of girls’ education in government schools

The Issue

The issue

Almost 70% of teachers working in the province of Sindh are men. Many families do not allow their daughters to attend classes taught by men, forcing these girls out of school. Additionally, teachers often don't have the training or resources they need to provide girls with high quality education due to underfunding and limited qualification requirements.

Sayyeda Numrah’s approach

Teacher Training

Inspired by her mother who was a kindergarten teacher, Numrah knew from an early age that she wanted to work with students. After teaching at a government school and seeing that her peers did not always have the qualifications to thrive as educators, Numrah decided to focus her work on improving teaching standards in her community and increasing the number of female teachers. Now as a lecturer at the nonprofit Durbeen, Numrah trains female teachers in Karachi to improve the quality of education in public schools.

With her Malala Fund grant, Numrah will assess how well Durbeen’s teacher training programme is improving students’ learning outcomes. This data will inform a state-wide advocacy campaign that aims to prove to leaders how critical trained teachers are in improving girls’ secondary school enrolment rates. The campaign will also push for the government to require all teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in education.