A UK-based organization has launched the Pakistan Special Education Initiative (PSEI) to support children with disabilities in accessing quality mainstream education and achieving important life milestones. PSEI, native to the UK’s Education, Health, and Care Plan, aims to develop a screening system, provide resources for teachers to support students with special needs better, establish quality standards and training for school staff, and design a tailored Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) curriculum.

Founded and funded by the CareTech Foundation, PSEI addresses the significant challenge in Pakistan, where an estimated 1 in 4 people face mental health or disability-related issues. With 60% of Pakistanis under 35, there’s a growing need for mental health and SEND support in schools.

Currently, many schools lack the expertise to properly support students with disabilities appropriately, leading to limited admissions and insufficient support. Partnering with CareTech Holdings Ltd., a leading social care provider in the UK and Middle East, PSEI has initially engaged five Pakistani schools to collaborate with five UK schools, facilitating knowledge exchange and access to specialist training resources.

PSEI will introduce screening tools to identify children with SEND, offering tailored learning pathways and training for assessors. With an advisory board of local disability leaders and dedicated program management, PSEI is poised to make a significant impact. With the additional help of the COSARAF Foundation and five local schools, the Initiative seeks to empower a generation of young Pakistanis through SEND-confident and SEND-competent teachers.

CEO Jonathan Freeman, MBE, emphasizes the Initiative’s transformative potential and calls for local support to ensure its success. With an initial focus on five schools, PSEI plans to scale its efforts annually, involving specialist partners and engaging the Federal Government of Pakistan to adopt its educational framework.