Our story begins in 1995 when an anthropologist (Dr. Farhat Sultana) and her Canadian husband (Dr. Mike McGarry) decided to work with the people of Mansehra Valley. They moved to the valley, built a house and established a local NGO ... Agahi.

Mansehra Villages in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)

Surveying Mansehra communities they found that education was extremely poor. Parents were facing an uphill battle in preparing their children for the future. Schools were overcrowded classrooms, teachers were absent and teaching methods outdated.

The greatest constraint to Mansehra’s development and the root cause of NWFP’s problems is illiteracy and poor education. Typically, learning is by memorization and repetition with little understanding of the basic concepts. The product is a child who is dependant, uncreative and afraid to question the status quo. The challenge was to introduce modern methods of teaching – activity based learning – in a society where teachers and parents had been taught by rote memorization.

Agahi’s first school was in Mari Khan Khel, a village 20 minutes from Mansehra town. A chicken coup had been offered by the local landlord. The parents rehabilitated, cleaned and opened it as a classroom for Agahi’s first intake of 23 children. Seeing success, other villages joined in: Buffa-Mera, Laberkot, Lambi-Dheri and Safaida. Later, after the earthquake in 2005, two more schools were added: Mazullah and Maidan. Agahi now boasts seven schools, XX students up to Grade XX, and XX teachers.

Agahi’s schools are managed by their parent’s organizations. Parents pay school fees making the schools sustainable. The poorest and deserving children are provided scholarships. Learning is activity based, emphasizing understanding of concepts rather than memorization of facts and rules. Teachers receive formal training during vacations. During school terms, they are monitored and supported in their classrooms by Agahi’s mentors.

Laberkot's First Students (1998)

Agahi created its Teacher Training Centre with support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Canadian Bureau of Education (CBIE), and the Institute of Educational Development, Karachi (IED). Dr. Sultana opened a commercial school in Mansehra that gives its profits in support of the Agahi Teacher Training. Support for school construction came from Mr. Kahlid Usman, his group of Toronto supporters and from Developments in Literacy (DIL) a US based foundation for education.

Teachers Learning Activity-based Teaching