Khoj-Sheikhupura District, Punjab

In the villages in which Khoj is supporting a non-formal education project for children, most of the population are either small landholders or landless labourers. The absence of healthcare and education facilities, improper sanitation and drainage, limited road access and a strong patriarchal system have all contributed to a lack of quality education and a depressed situation, in particular for girls and women. Khoj has responded to this situation with a project focussing on building the awareness and self-confidence among girls and their mothers. Initially, Khoj began by supporting a literacy programme for women which used phonetics as a teaching/learning methodology. In view of the rapid results, women asked that their children also be provided with these education classes which are now being undertaken in ten villages of Sheikhupura District in central Punjab Province.

Evaluation Objectives

The purpose of evaluation was to assess the approaches and effectiveness of the project activities and suggest recommendations for future interventions.
Specific objectives of the evaluation were:
> To see how relevant are both the projects and activities in terms of addressing needs of target communities and achieving the projects’ objectives;
> To measure efficiency and effectiveness of the approaches;
> To assess the projects’ impact, with the utilisation of SC UK Global Impact Monitoring framework tool i.e. specific project and common monitoring
> To provide future direction (in the form of Recommendations) for phase II

Punjab Project

The communities needs have clearly driven this project as the initial request for Khoj methodology to be used to address gender disparity, and to provide an educational opportunity for girls, came from the women in the communities who were attending Khoj literacy classes. This having been said, many of the men in the communities initially provided much resistance to project activities, fearing that the impact of their girls being educated would be immorality and loss of respect for their family. There has been a clear shift in the attitudes of many men from the start of the project, and currently in one village (BabuWala) a Khoj mens’ literacy group has started in response to their request.