Idealism need not fight capitalism because they can work in harmony, is the message of Khadija Bakhtiar, whose ‘Teach for Pakistan’ project aims to place 40 teachers in 20 under-resourced primary and secondary schools in Karachi this year and the next.While studying public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, Bakhtiar was inspired by fellow students who had worked with Teach for America, a programme that tries to end educational inequity by sending top university graduates to teach in poor neighbourhoods for two years.
“My colleagues said the project had changed their lives and [they] went on to become advocates for educational reform,” says Bakhtiar, explaining how it sparked her interest and search for other Pakistanis who were interested in starting a similar project in their country.
Indeed, Pakistan is the perfect place to start. Unesco’s senior national specialist for education, Arshad Saeed Khan, has said that the average Pakistani spends a mere 5.7 years in school.
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