Improving Literacy Outcomes for Disadvantaged Girls Through Empowerment
Literacy acquisition is important for the formation of higher order skills, further engagement with written forms of knowledge, and deeper participation in society. Yet not all children have the opportunity to acquire literacy skills in their own mother tongue to allow them to continue to advance to these wider benefits of learning. This is particularly the case for girls living in poverty in Pakistan, where about 40% of the poorest girls are out of school compared to 24% of the richest girls not going to school. For those who start school, less than half complete a full cycle of basic education and less than 20% complete secondary schooling. In this chapter, the authors develop evidence for the effectiveness of a remedial learning program—Siyani Sahelian—which aims to support the reintegration of disadvantaged girls into schooling by developing literacy skills in Urdu (among other academic and life skills). The chapter provides evidence of the extent to which the programme supports literacy acquisition in an equitable way, and the main reasons behind the observed trends.