E-Bagrotbericht 2024

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"GIRLS‘ EDUCATION — GIRLS‘ POWER

Monika Higher Secondary School for Girls in Datuchi / Bagrot Valley, Pakistan

Project Report 2024

In October I visited our project, the college for girls in the Bagrot Valley, and spent 10 days there.
As a reminder: The girls' school we founded in 1992 has been a government school up to the 10^th grade since several years.
The expansion of the school into a goverment higher secondary school (1^>st to 12^th grade) has also been completed. Two of the existing school buildings were raised by one floor and the school campus was leveled and walled off. The new upper floors with additional classrooms are used intensively, including in the afternoons. Additional rooms are now needed for the kindergarden group, home economics classes and more classrooms.
The state secretary of the province of Gilgit-Baltistan, who is responsible for schools, does not see any medium-term possibility of financing the structural extensions and additional teaching positions that a higher secondary school requires. This type of school has two higher grades and must offer additional specialist teaching. State recognition as a higher secondary school therefore does not mean any relief in terms of the salary costs for the specialist teachers borne by the project.

‚Monika College for Girls’

110 female students are attending grades 11, 12, 13 and 14 at our college this semester.

Since the government has adequately provided the Girls High School (grades 1-10) with its current 218 students with teachers, only the teachers for the secondary school years, grades 11-14, have to be financed from private donations.
The total of six class groups are taught by 14 specialist teachers, whom we finance with your donations. In addition to the associated tasks, the local project coordinator teaches in grades 13 and 14. We also employ an assistant to provide personal support to the students. All teachers come from the Bagrot Valley and enjoy great trust among parents and students.
The subjects taught in the first two years of college: Urdu, English, pedagogy, sociology, politics, social studies, Islamic studies and, in the science-oriented groups, physics, biology and chemistry.
In April 2023, the education authority extended the bachelor's degree programs by two to four years and expanded the teaching content accordingly. At our college in the Bagrot Valley, students can now prepare for the Bachelor of Science Education (BS Ed.) degree from the 3rd year (grade 13), which is a teaching degree program.
The new subjects taught in the 3^rd and 4^th years of college: natural sciences, Urdu, English, child development, didactics and methodology (general and with reference to literacy acquisition and various subjects such as Urdu, English, mathematics, social studies), school and classroom dynamics, information technology, Islamic studies.
After successfully completing the first two of four years of the bachelor's degree, the students move on to the university in the provincial capital Gilgit. The first graduates of the new degree program will be faced with this decision in summer 2025.
The students come from all the villages in the valley. Some of them travel long distances to school.
The lessons at the 'Monika College for Girls' are free. There are no monthly or semester fees.
The lessons are held in the afternoons in the empty rooms of the govenment girls' school.

‘Education at Home’ is our motto. The aim is to make possible what is otherwise not possible in Bagrot:

in 1992 it was school attendance for girls,

from 2005 it was upper secondary school attendance

and today it is admittace to university.

The first years study in the Bagrot valley because studying outside is expensive. The college classes are attended by daughters from economically poorer families.
For several years now, inflation has been very high in Pakistan. This has a particularly strong impact on the expenditure on basic foodstuffs and other everyday goods and places an additional burden on economically weak households.

High-performing girls: At the time of my visit, there was still a great deal of excitement at the central secondary school for boys in Bagrot. All students in the 9^th grade had not been promoted and were repeating the year. This had consequences. Teachers were shifted and the headmaster had to report weekly to the school board on their learning progress. A comparison of the exam results with those of the local secondary school for girls showed that the girls with the worst grades all did better than the boys with the best grades. There was a lot of speculation about the reasons. The fact is, say the teachers, that boys are usually given a lot of free time and therefore freedom at home. Girls, on the other hand, are involved in housework and childcare at an early age. Leisure activities are rather limited for girls and not viewed positively. This has an effect on learning behavior, discipline and self-concept. Another experience is that students at state schools are very rarely asked about their homework at home or even checked. If, on the other hand, school attendance is subject to a fee, as is the case at many private schools outside the valley, the parents' and students' behavior is very different. Regardless of the reasons for the boys’ poor performance, we are proud of ‘our’ girls.

Milestones since 1992

32 years ago there was great concern that daughters who could read and write and speak Urdu (the lingua franca of the country) would neglect work in the house and on the farm and become disobedient. The reaction to the issue of girls attending school was: “We don't need that in Bagrot. We are farmers.”
In the first few years, our project school was attended by girls from all of Bagrot's villages since it was the only girls' school in the entire valley. Under pressure from the population, the school authorities set up girls' primary schools in all 6 villages over the course of 10 years.
From 2005 onwards we also offered upper secondary education. Since then, over 900 young women have completed 2-4 years of study after completing secondary school.
Consequences of attending school and college: The young women marry later, have children later and usually have fewer children due to targeted family planning. Some graduates work outside of their own household and the flourishing farm, mostly as teachers. The regular monthly income is a great advantage for families.
The career aspirations of female students are now more diverse than in the past: the majority of their interests lie in the fields of law, public administration, medicine and other health professions, as well as the popular teaching profession. They aim for a job in the public sector because it promises job security and a pension.
We also see many changes in everyday life: the female students and graduates can communicate easily in the country's lingua franca, they act more independently, many enjoy a new appreciation in the family and outside, they help their children with school questions and homework (their mothers and grandparents could not do this), they dare to go shopping alone and also travel without a male companion - something their mothers and grandmothers do not do. Some young women now drive cars as a matter of course, including teachers to work. Some young women today question the marriages arranged by their parents. This has considerable potential for conflict for families and for the assessment of school education for girls. Education as a driver for questioning old traditions? We may encounter this reaction more often in the future.

Project Costs

The total costs for the teaching staff and material costs of the college financed by private donations amount to 18,000 € for the current school year. We are very grateful for any support. There are many good examples of this :

Fundraisers 2024

One seam a day: A friend sews for a good cause in her free time. She donates the profits from the sale of Cologne key chains, neck pillows, pencil cases, bags and other practical items to the project.
Donations instead of gifts: Good friends and dear neighbors have once again used happy or sad occasions to donate.
Social Day at the Oberharz-Gymnasium in Braunlage: Part of the proceeds again went to our project.
Some permanent donors, long-term supporters and also the members of the Forum Kinder in Not e.V. contribute significantly to the continuation of the project.
I am very grateful for their trust and loyalty.
Monika Girls School. Every donation helps!: Call for donations on the new track suit of the B-youth girls' team (handball) of the LSC in Cologne.

I would like to thank all the silent donors all the more for their support. They keep the project going.

The students, parents, teachers and many other people from the Bagrot Valley send out a many-voiced Thank You and greetings.
I wish you: Above all, stay healthy!

With kind regards
Monika Schneid, December 2024