Ilm on Wheels is a training program for elementary school teachers, which deals in a systemic way with the different dimensions of competencies in pedagogy. Implemented by the NGO TeleTaleem, in close collaboration with the Save the Children Foundation, the initiative is supported by grants from the “Ilm Ideas” program of the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Ilm on Wheels was conceived and implemented in 2012 in 10 elementary schools in Balakot. Its aim was to increase the mathematical skills of children aged 7 to 8 and their teachers. Given the good results, the program was extended to 46 schools in the province in 2013, adding reading and community inclusion as fundamental axes.

The main idea of Ilm on Wheels is to bring educational materials to marginalized rural areas through online supports. For this, a vehicle (the “School Garee”) takes computers, tablets and Wi-Fi routers through a tour of the registered communities (8-10 schools per van), which allows teachers to have access to a playful training “just in time”. This training includes pedagogical methodology and additional knowledge in mathematics and reading. Participants are given a numeric tablet with pre-loaded educational materials to use as support in their class.

During each visit (2 in the month), the children’s progress and the teachers’ main difficulties are monitored in a discussion group. They are responsible for recording the results of each student in a special application of the tablet, which sends the information to a central base that disseminates them through SMS to all groups of interest (family, teachers, directors, etc.). Information dissemination is complemented by the training of Community Learning Workers (CLWs) recruited from the community to organize reading camps and adult learning sessions. On a monthly basis, a professional from the NGO attends a class to evaluate the good performance of the activities. Since 2013, 8,000 students and 86 teachers in three cities in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) have participated in the program. Each of the teachers has their own numerical tablet, which contains more than 200 numerical books and 22 methodological kits. 900 reading field works have been carried out with adults in 30 rural communities.