ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT
House of Light School
Yearly Progress Report 2010
House of Light School Pind Begwal, Islamabad.
The House of Light School is pleased to present its achievements for the year 2010. The economic and financial situation of Pakistan has become, as we all know, a very troubling reality. However, we the Board of Trustees, and all our well wishers are not giving in to pessimism. Despite all the challenges, we intend to move ahead and work for the enlightenment of our present and future generations. We shall be grateful and appreciative of all those willing to help us in this endeavor.
Teachers Training Workshop
We conducted a week long teachers training workshop with the help of the NGO ‘Promote Education in Pakistan’. An educationist visited the HOL School and trained our teachers.
Seven teachers of the HOL School also attended a teachers training program at Beharia college Islamabad.
A two weeks English language course for the teachers of the House of Light School and other surrounding schools was arranged last summer.
Syllabus: Maze (New Century Education)
Last year the school introduced the Maze (NCE) syllabus for its pre-1 class. It is an interactive method of teaching, the positive effects of which are already visible after just one year. This year the school plans to use Maze books for pre-1, pre-2 and class 1.
Annual Function 2010
The annual function of HOL was organized on 8th April 2011. Commodore Azhar Majeed Khan, Principal Bahria Collage Islamabad attended as chief guest. Position holding students were awarded prizes. The Chief Guest and members of the local community expressed very interesting views about our cause for the advancement of education and wished us well.
Cultural activities 2010
Visit to Khuldunia Primary school in Islamabad to participate in a poetry competition. The principal of Khuldunia, Ms Hajra Ahmed was very impressed by the self confidence and performance of the children of the House of Light School
The children of Hol School visited Gallery6 Islamabad for the exhibition “Eminent artists of Pakistan”. The curator of Gallery6 Mr Arjumand Faisal was very impressed by the children and called them the “amazing kids of Pind Begwal”.
Awareness Program for Parents.
HoL School also conducted an awareness program and workshops for the parents of students to give them guidance about the education of their children. Mrs. Kausar Pervaiz Nawaz (Rtd AVM) and Madam Shahla Rafi (Project Advisor) helped in the awareness program for the parents.
New Session
In April 2010, our new session started, 20 new children were admitted and a new class was introduced.
New Appointments.
With the addition of a new class, a new teacher has also been also appointed to meet the teaching requirements of the school.
Situation of CSP
In 2010, 5 new CSP Donors started their donations.
New Furniture for new class
As per requirements new furniture for about Rs.31000 was purchased.
Uniform
In 2010, HOL School provided new uniforms to all the students.
Books and Stationary.
In 2010, HOL School also provided books and stationary to all the students.
Present Strength of HoL School Students.
All 116 students received free and quality education from the HOL School.
Our Problems.
New Building
HOL School is in a rented building, which is too small to meet the requirements of a new class. The good news is that the Board of Trustees is determined to begin the construction a new building in Bain Nala on a 5 kanal parcel of land donated by the parents of one of the trustees, Raja Qaiser. This 5 kanal donation should this year be extended by another 10 to 15 kanals. Mr. M. Tufail (spouse of our trustee Ms. Bilquis Tufail) who is chief engineer with CMD (an American construction company) has been entrusted with the layout plan of this proposed new school building. Our goal is to have the school building ready for the school session starting in 2012.
Trained Staff
As HOL School is situated in a remote area we lack trained staff. Unfortunately, we cannot afford qualified teachers from Islamabad as they demand salaries that are beyond our means.
Trustees
We are very happy to announce that Ms Bilqees Tufail has agreed to remain a trustee despite her moving back to the US.
Ms Shahla Rafi has been appointed project manager on the Board of Trustees. She also teaches art to the children of the school and takes an English language class once a week. Mrs Zeenat Khan, a relatively new resident of our village and a committed social worker has also very kindly agreed to take an English language class once a week.
Transportation
The school has hired two Suzuki Vans, which is enough to meet our present requirements. However, the HOL school urgently needs its own school bus. Any help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Parents of Students
The parents of students are mostly uneducated and unaware of modern methods of education. It is, therefore, a matter of great concern for HOL School to rectify this situation so that the home environment of the children becomes more conducive to their educational requirements.
Bad Hygienic Condition of Students.
Mostly, students belong to very poor families, whose parents cannot afford proper food or hygiene for them. This is affecting the student’s health and consequently their studies. However, with our proposed new school building, the students hygienic conditions should improve considerably.
Food Arrangements.
We had to stop food arrangements for our students because of our financial constraints. However, Mrs Sadia Qaiser, the principal, is adamant about bringing back this program for the students. She has appealed to all the trustees and management of the HIT to restore the food program.
Teacher of the Year Award.
Miss Nagina Kausar has been selected by the school management as teacher of the year 2010.
Her interaction with the children has been loving, caring, and excellent per se.
International contacts.
Arnim Schulz and Christel Plümer were kind and generous enough to spend a part of the spring/summer months in Pind Begwal. HIT (Spain) and HIT (Pakistan) had their first joint meeting in Islamabad.
Arnim was also Chief Guest at the annual school function for the year 2010. His unforgettable speech in urdu still reverberates in the minds of all who heard him. We are very grateful to both Arnim and Christel for their interest and help in our program.
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House of Light School
Yearly Progress Report 2009
- Teachers Training Workshop
We have conducted a teachers training workshop of one week duration with the help of Promote Education Pakistan. An educationist arrived in HoL School and trained the teachers.
- Annual Function 2009
Annual function of HOL was organized on April 2009. Position holder students were awarded prizes. Chief Guest and local community express their good views about this Nobel cause.
- New Session
In April 2009, new session started, 19 new children were admitted and a new class started.
- New Appointments.
As a new class is started so a new teacher is also appointed to meet the necessities.
- Situation of CSP
In 2009, 4 new CSP Donors starts their donations.
- Contact with other NGO’s
We have contacted with promote education for the teachers training workshops and an educationist had come and facilitate teachers with training.
- New Furniture for new class
As per requirement new furniture of about Rs.30000 was purchased.
- Uniform
In 2009, HoL School provided new uniform to all students.
- Books and Stationary.
In 2009, HoL School also provided books and stationary to all students.
- Awareness Program for Parents.
HoL School also conducted awareness program and workshops for the parents of students to guide them about education of their children.
- Present Strength of HoL School Student.
At 79 students are getting free and quality education from HoL School.
- Documentation.
Hol School sent documents to FBISE, Islamabad for the renewal of registration certificate.
Our Problems.
- Building
HoL School is situated in rented building, which is not enough to meet the requirements of new class.
- Trained Staff
As hol school is situated in a remote area we are lacking of trained staff, and we can’t afford them from Islamabad as they demand high salaries.
- Transportation.
School has hired a Suzuki Van, which is not enough to meet the requirements.
- Unawareness of Parents of education
Mostly the parents of students are uneducated and unaware modern methods of education so it is a matter of great concern for HoL School to tackle the situation.
- Bad Hygienic Condition of Students
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House of Light School
Yearly Progress Report 2008
This report is being published to highlight the progress of House of Light School during the period starting from January 2008 to December 2008.
The major activities conducted during this period are as under.
- Children’s Promotion
The educational year has ended on 9th May, 2008. School took exams from all three classes and passed children promote to new classes. Our school result was as under
Class Total Failed student Passed student
Prep I 19 -- 18
Prep II 16 -- 16
Grade I 17 -- 17
Grade II 17 -- 17
So our school result was 99% is in Session 2008.
- New Admission for Class Prep I
As our Prep I class was promoted to Prep II so we have to do new admission for Prep I in July 2008. Now HOL has 15 new children for Prep I. The selection committee played an important role and helped HOL for the admission of children of deserving families.
- Providing of Books to Students
HOL decided to improve the standard of our education so with the guidance of some senior teachers we decided to implement the Oxford syllabus. HoL School provides books to all 4 classes for 69 children.
- Providing of Uniform to Students
Caring the poor people of area HoL also provides School uniform to students
So that student can get education without any financial pressure.
- Hiring of New School Building and maintenance
We have hired a school building for period of 5 years including the 2.5 canals of playground. The ambience affects a lot of students, we are committed to providing a healthy and helpful environment to our students for that we are paying a great attention on building maintenance services, a garden hired to take care of plants and grass field and flowers. The play ground for the students is ready and the sanitation system has been upgraded.
- Documentation
All the supporting documents are being prepared to maintain the record like CSP forms (child support forms). Admission forms, banners and advertisement broachers are prepared.
- Community Support
During this period our main achievement was to get more support of the local community, especially those who are not co-operating with us are not taking interest in our child support program. Also we have got the support of some political leaders, well known businessmen and government officials.
- Appointment of New Staff
As the number of students has increased in present we have 69 students, and 4 classes. So we appointed one more teacher this year at present we have 5 teachers we have appointed new computer operator.
- CSP ( child support program )
CSP is a program in which one can adopt a child to support him/her for his/her studies. At present donors has adopted 18 children and we are still trying to get more donors who can support us in a good cause.
- Annual Function June 2008
- We also conducted an Annual function for school. We invite a large number of people in school from Islamabad as well as local community. In this function result of students was announced and also children performed some program for audience this function will be organized every year.
- On 15th October, 2008 Eid Millon Party was organized by House of Light School, in students perform very charming and attractive programs.
- Contact with other NGO’s & Persons
For fund raising we tried to get connection with other NGO’s and persons. Some of them are promised to do help for school and also some persons are trying to help us.
- CO of Promote Education came to HoL School. She stayed there 15 days, during this period she gave training to teachers, took workshop for the children of HoL and their mothers.
- She also helped HoL by donating a sum of Rs. 78000/- from the Promote Education.
- HoL also received a donation from the president of Horizon Education for Pakistan in Spain, Mr.Arnim Schulz, a sum of Rs.222.000/-
- HoL get donation from Khan Abdul Ghaffar a sum of Rs.54.000/-
- Miss Nageen Hayat from Nomad Art Gallery also supported HoL School well not only in advertisement by the exhibition of Eid Cards but she also helped Hol School in fund raising.
- Advertisement in News Papers
Advertisement is very important factor of any institution we prepared brochures and banners. We also invited news reporter to all our functions. So they often highlight the school activities in the newspapers. They also wrote many columns about our school system.
Exhibition of Eid Cards, photographs by Raja Qaiser, President of Horizon International Trust and designed by Islamabad Scan, Islamabad was held in Nomad Art Gallery, Islamabad. It was also published in different newspapers.
- Awareness Program for Parents
- School also conducted many meetings for the parents of students and also for common persons. The agenda of the meetings were like importance of education, justice, cleanliness population and its problems education for girls like these people come in our meetings. They discuss their problems and our chief guests answer their questions. Also in future we have plans to do more programs like this.
- The CO of Promote Education took 15 days workshop to create awareness in parents and local community especially in women about the importance of education.
- Our Problems
Above we have mentioned what we achieved, but with all that remarkable achievements we have some problems, like;
- The main problem we are facing is of funding, we are looking for people organizations who are willing to help are in CSP. At this time we have 69 students enrolled in our school and only 18 of them are been supported by donors & rest of 51 students are been supported by school. Keeping in view that school has to pay the hiring charges of the school building, utility bills & etc, the survival in such a condition is very hard. So we are looking forward to have some sincere & strong support from outside.
- Secondly we are in lack of qualified educational staff, as we are working in a remote area & from cities no one is willing to come & teach in a remote area as they are asking for good salaries & we do not have enough funds to fulfill their demands.
- Promotion of Children
- New Admission for II Session
- Again school took 10 new students in August 2007; that time the selection committee again played an important part in the admission of new pupils.
- Books and Uniform
- Renting and maintenance of the School Building
- Documentation
- Community Support
- CSP ( Child Support Program )
- Annual Function 2007
- Contact to other NGOs & People
- Official registration of the school for the 2nd year
- Advertisement in Newspapers
- Awareness-Program for Parents
- Fix Salary for the former Volunteer Teachers
- Our Problems
- The main problem we are facing is funding. We are looking for people and organizations that are willing to help us in our CSP (Child Support Program). At present we have 53 students enrolled in our school and only 9 of them are sponsored. But the other 32 students are supported by our school. Taking into consideration that our school has to pay the rent for the school building, the utility bills etc, the survival under these circumstances is very hard. So we are looking forward to getting more sincere and strong support from outside.
- We lack qualified educational staff. As we are working in a remote area, nobody from the cities is willing to come and teach in a remote area, or they would ask for a salary we are not able to pay.
- As the number of students is growing by every year, we don’t have enough space to accommodate more students. So we will need a new school building to fulfill the growing needs of students in coming years.
- Mr. Sadiq had been donating food for school children for the last two years. But now he is not able to continue, because of some economical problems. So now the children bring their lunch from home, and our school is providing milk and fruit to them. Now we are trying to find people who can sponsor the expenses for lunch for the children.
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2007
This report is being published to highlight the progress of the House of Light School during the period starting from 15th Nov 2006 to 15th Dec 2007.
The major activities conducted during this period are as following:
The educational year ended in January 2007, and of 20 out of 25 children
were promoted from Prep I to Prep II. Five students dropped out of school
during the term, because they were from earth-quake affected areas and their families moved back to their native areas.
After the school-term exams all children were promoted from Prep II to grade I in August 2007.
As our Prep I moved to Prep II, we accepted 21 new children for the new Prep I starting January 2007. A selection committee consisting of three people representing the community conducted the admission. These members of the committee are well known in the community and enjoy good reputation.
We are committed to provide the necessary books, stationary and uniforms to all the students of the school.
We have rented a school building for a period of five years including the 2500 m² of play ground. The environment affects a lot of students, but we are committed to providing a healthy and helpful environment for all the students. Therefore we are paying a great attention to building maintenance services. A gardener has been hired to take care of plants and flowers and the lawn. The play ground for the students is ready and the sanitation system has been improved.
All the supporting documents are being prepared to maintain the record such as CSP forms (Child Support forms). Admission forms, banners and advertisement leaflets) are prepared.
During the school year 2006-2007 our main achievement was to obtain support from the local community, especially from those who were not co-operating with us so far or who were not taking interest in our child support program. Now we also have the support from some political leaders, well known businessmen and government officials.
Appointment of New Staff
As the number of students has increased (at present we have 53 students in three classes), we appointed three teachers and two volunteers. We hired one more janitor and a computer operator, as well.
CSP is a program in which one can sponsor a child to support him/her for his/her studies. At present donors are sponsoring 11 children and we are still trying to get more donors who can support us in a good cause.
We also conducted an annual Open Day of the school. We invited a large number of people to our school from Islamabad as well as from the local community. During this function the results of the students were announced and the children presented a program for the audience. An Open Day will be organized every year.
For fund raising we established contacts with other NGOs and people that could be helpful for our school. Some of them have promised to help us and our school.
The Pakistani Government announced to accept registration for private schools. Therefore we worked hard to achieve the official registration for our school and paid a registration fee of 15,000 Rupiah. Now our school is registered under the Federal board of Education.
Advertisement is a very important factor of any institution. Therefore we prepared brochures (leaflets) and banners and invited reporters of different newspapers to all our functions. They often highlighted the school activities in their newspapers and some also wrote articles about our school system.
Our School also conducted many meetings for the parents of the students and also for interested people. The agenda of these meetings were about the importance of education, justice, cleanliness, and the problems of education for girls. We discussed their problems of our guests and we answered their questions about our school system. In the future we will conduct more programs like this.
We had two volunteer teachers who are working for our school since November 2006. From August 2007 on they are receiving a monthly salary of 3,000 Rupiah each .
Above we have mentioned what we have achieved, but nevertheless all those remarkable achievements we still have some problems to overcome: