Broad Class - Listen to Learn, Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) program is a distance education program that combines radio broadcast with active learning to improve quality, equity & inclusiveness. The program delivers student-centered instruction that covers basic skills in universal, cross-cutting themes and general & universal principles for early childhood education that makes it relevant to other cultural & geographical scenarios. We caught up with Fakhira Najib, Chief Executive Officer of Power99 Foundation to hear how being in the HundrED 2019 Collection has helped them to grow their impact and scale.
What does it mean for Broad Class - Listen to Learn to be recognized as a leading education innovation in the HundrED 2019 Global Collection?
Having seen the impact of its work, POWER99 Foundation wanted to share it with a wider audience on an international platform, but it is a really hard thing to do. HundrED’s interest in seeking, sharing and helping to scale innovations as well as the sense of community brought a ray of opportunity for us to portray our work. We are very happy to be part of this larger community to share and learn from each other’s experiences. For us, being part of HundrED is both prestigious and important, as it may encourage more experimentation in education in Pakistan. Being selected as a leading innovator in the HundrED 2019 Global Collection was a recognition of our years of work and many people who have given time, knowledge and passion to boost learning for students, parents, and communities in target areas. It's an acknowledgment of great efforts of teachers, students, volunteers and workers who have contributed to thinking about the content of the program, visiting schools, or encouraging communities to support our mission.
What are your biggest takeaways from the HundrED Innovation Summit?
I must say that there are countless takeaways from the Summit. It provided us the opportunity to interact and learn from innovators from various parts of the world. The summit also provided an opportunity to learn from both new and established innovators about common issues and various ways and strategies to overcome such issues. It also provided the opportunity to explore possibilities for building future collaborations.
Through HundrED, I am now part of a global community that has helped me in so many ways. A lot of what we are dealing with is exactly the same, which is the belief in doing good, how to make it happen, and having the hearts and minds committed to positive change; that is a struggle that is never worth giving up on. Being part of the HundrED Innovation Summit, encouraged us to renew our commitment to education and its challenges. We realized that in all parts of the world, independent of cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic differences, the educational challenge persists. The summit was a great opportunity for us to share ideas about how to make students learn better, and how to help them to become happy and fully developed.
How has the HundrED Summit and global recognition helped progress the impact of Broad Class - Listen to learn?
It has been evident that being listed on the HundrED website has added tremendous value in creating trust in our organization when speaking to large donors and companies who would otherwise not support organizations as young as ours. There is more media coverage around Physically Active Learning than ever before - and being part of the HundrED Collection for 2019 has certainly increased our profile. As shared earlier, this provided us with a timely reminder about our own practice when working with schools. With this in mind, we now offer schools a platform that promotes leadership and coaching opportunities for their own learners.
HundrED's recognition helps us communicate the work carried out by the foundation with greater sustenance. Innovation in education is always complex and long-term, so any support along the way is always a source of aid and validation. HundrED has helped us to validate that what we are doing is a contribution to the integral development of the student, and absolutely necessary for the world of the 21st century.
The summit also provided us the opportunity to share our work through international media. HundrED conducted a WEBday Webinar on 'how radio broadcasts can improve educational quality, equity, and inclusiveness.' This opened up many opportunities such as reaching the STI Forum with the support and mentoring of the organisation. The organisation was contacted by Russian Television (RT) and they shared our story on their Arabic channel. Besides that, the story was also shared by VoA in their program, 360 View and again by VoA in their radio program, Sada-e-Jahan.
So, what is next for Broad Class - Listen to learn?
There are various activities planned for the future. POWER99 Foundation is initiating the implementation of a program in Madaris (religious schools) in two districts of Pakistan, this year. The content of the lessons will be customized according to the needs of Madaris (religious schools). This shall enable us to create teams in other areas and allow the concept to be locally customized and spread. Working with Madaris will be a totally different experience than working with mainstream school students. As to global links, the more the better. POWRE99 Foundation would love to collaborate with organizations in order to work with more children and teachers across the world for a common cause.
What would you say to innovators who are looking to connect with HundrED? Why should they be part of the global community for change?
POWER99 Foundation would encourage all new and established innovators to be a part of HundrED community, a platform for a global network of innovators in education. Every innovator will have the opportunity to benefit from ideas, tools and support, but above all, inspiring people with a strong purpose that will push them to move forward. In addition, HundrED's inspiration is a constant reminder that there are many in the world fighting for quality education, independent of their contexts and complexities.
Learn more about Broad Class on their Innovation Page.
