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PARTNERSHIP
Aanya Niaz
Improving education in Pakistan and across the world.
Aanya led the development of The Citizens Foundation's (TCF) first English as Foreign Language curriculum that is currently used across the country. TCF is one of the world's largest low-cost private school networks, with over 1,500 schools and 220,000 students.
Titled "Learning English with the Iqbals", the curriculum is a carefully curated language learning journey that reflects local student contexts, interests and needs, founded in technical expertise pertaining to foreign language acquisition.
With a passion to address the post-colonial 'hangover' in education, Aanya continues to campaign for a focus on teaching English as a language versus a subject, and revisiting our use of English as the Medium of Instruction to reflect the linguistic reality of the majority of Pakistani citizens.
Aanya was part of the OECD's Evaluation & Assessments Team. Her work involved advising governments on their policies regarding student assessment, teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system-wide data use to inform policy making. During her time in Paris, Aanya contributed to multiple reports, including to the Ministry of Serbia, Turkey, and Macedonia. Aanya also wrote for the REAL Centre blog, Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, reflecting on the impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic on research work on international education and development.
Aanya was selected as the TEDWomen2020 speaker
According to the World Bank, 75% of 10-year-olds in Pakistan cannot read or understand a simple story. At the same time, enrolment rates up to the age of 10 are the highest in the country. Why is it then that despite being in school, children never learn to read? Aanya Niaz highlights the perils of high-stakes examinations and their adverse implications on students, teachers, and parents. She advocates for a shift from using exams and assessments as the most powerful and often the only measurement of learning, to adopting a blended assessment approach that accommodates both student and teacher needs, creating an enabling learning environment for all.
Aanya at her matriculation at the University of Oxford in 2016
Jinnah’s Pakistan is proud to announce a partnership with Aanya Niaz and work together to promote The Maple Advisory Group's efforts in solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges in education.