The Pakistan Education Development (PED) Program supported by USAID started in 1990 and ended in 1994. The materials listed in this website are in Pasto, Urdu, and English. Funding for the program was halted after four rather than ten years when the US invoked the Pressler Amendment concerning nuclear capability.
The PED Program aimed to increase the enrollment of children, especially girls, and improve the quality of the primary school program in the two low-literacy provinces of Pakistan (Northwest Frontier Province and Balochistan). The student materials collected here—focused on math and language arts–were developed for NWFP to improve the quality of the primary academic program. Funding stopped before all the materials were completed for Classes 4 and 5.
PED Primary School Materials
The following materials were produced by PED. They were preceded by BRIDGES studies conducted by Harvard consultants, needs assessments, and human resource development surveys. The materials were introduced on a trial basis in 700 classrooms where they were evaluated and proved effective in the majority of classrooms (See evaluation reports in a separate file). The instructional materials were developed with the specific conditions of NWFP in mind: specifically that teachers often found it difficult to attend training classes, that class size varied from a few children up to 100, that few instructional tools or materials were available, that teachers needed a clear, structured approach to help them switch from a rote to a more interactive learning style, and that test measures needed to be installed to ensure children learned the skills they needed.
PED Books for Primary School Children
- Teacher’s Guide for Lower Grade 1 (Pashto)
- Teacher’s Guide for Grade 2 Math (Urdu)
- Grade 1 Math (Pashto)
- Grade 1 Math Textbook (Urdu)
- Grade 2 Math Textbook (Urdu)
- Grade 2 Math Workbook (Urdu)
- Grade 2 Textbook (Pashto)
- Lower Grade 1 Equivalent to Kachi Class (Pashto)
- Upper Grade 1 Equivalent to Grade 1 (Pashto)
The books are missing Urdu and Pashto language arts volumes as well as some of the math books. However the Afghan materials (see Afghan files) were modeled on these Pakistani books and are therefore quite similar.
In addition the Pakistan files include supplementary textbook materials that were developed to provide extra practice in math and science.
- PED Math for Grades 2 and 3
- PED Math for Grades 4 and 5
- PED Supplementary Science and Math for Primary Classes
English in Action
The Ministry of Education asked PED for an English program that would improve the language skills of primary school children, especially those in rural areas where needs assessment studies showed many teachers did not know English well enough to teach the language. The Interactive Radio English books below accompanied PED’s radio programs beamed into classrooms in half hour segments. The radio programs emphasized spoken skills while the workbooks below taught reading and writing skills. The workbooks start at Class 2 and go to Class 4 when USAID funding stopped. The radio programs may be found in the Pakistan Broadcasting offices in Peshawar, or with Seragidin Sidiqi with Afghan Radio in Peshawar. The student books include:
Primary Education Support 