Aagahi, TCF’s adult literacy programme was launched in 2005 as a community development initiative. It provides illiterate women from rural areas and urban slums around TCF Schools a chance to learn how to read and write.

The classes are held twice a year from January to April and September to December. As a part of this programme, basic mathematics, Urdu reading and writing is taught to the learners over a period of four months. The literacy module comprises of four workbooks, three to teach phonetics based recognition of sounds and one to teach basic numeracy.

Basic functional literacy skills have an enormous impact on community women. From being able to read bus numbers at a busy bus stop, to calculating the change they are owed at the end of a shopping transaction, to writing a letter to their loved ones, the gift of literacy dramatically transforms their lives.

Over the past 6 years, TCF has helped thousands of women become literate under its adult literacy program previously known as Jugnoo, now called Aagahi held at various TCF schools. The program is sponsored by National Foods Ltd., and is partnered with Literate Pakistan Foundation. Earlier this year, the program was scaled up and three back to back cycles of the 3-month course have been conducted at about 40 locations across all four regions of Pakistan. In this one year alone about 2000 women from TCF community have learned basic Math and Urdu.

According to the feedback from TCF Principals on Aagahi’s success, by and large a positive change has been observed in the presentation and communication of “TCF mothers”. They are more self-confident, more aware and involved in their children’s education and upbringing at home. They can monitor their children’s homework and track academic performance.
Going forward, TCF wants to increase Aagahi sessions and plans to target not just mothers but also other relatives/community women who cannot read or write. Ultimately the aim is to have an Aagahi center running across all TCF schools.