Written by: Waseem Abbas
Posted on: March 30, 2022 | 
| 中文
Beneficiaries of the Invest in Future Leaders (IFL) program
The Organization for Educational Change (OEC), founded in 2010, is a Non-Government Organization (NGO) based in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral (GBC) that seeks to bring educational change across the region. OEC was the brainchild of students from Gilgit Baltistan and Chitral studying in different universities across Pakistan, who had faced innumerable hurdles regarding academics, university selections, degree choices, and preparations for entry tests. It was then that they decided that an organization needs to be set up that would help the younger generations of the northern areas of Pakistan in education, career choices and other education-related issues. So far six projects are part of OEC's central plans, including Educure magazine, Invest in Future Leaders (IFL), Career door, Educational Expos, Summer Camp, and Discover GBC.
Educational Expo in 2018 in Hunza
The primary mission around which all of OEC's activities revolve, is to bring positive change in society through quality education. To achieve the stated goal, OEC provides financial assistance to deserving students, arranges expos and summers camps where undergrads are prepared for their educational and professional lives, and helps in admission tests of the top universities. The long-term goal of OEC, which they want to achieve through quality education, is to establish a plural, democratic, innovative, scientific and economically prosperous GBC.
The executive body, comprising of the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Information Secretary and the Executive Director, spearheads the organization and manages its operations. The Patron-in-Chief and the Monitory and Advisory (M&A) Council of OEC assist, advise and oversee the functioning of the organization. The new executive body is recommended by the outgoing executive body, and is ratified by the Patron and the Monitory and Advisory (M&A) Council.
OEC's core team (2019-20)
IFL sponsored the educational expenses of 94 students in the academic year 2020-21, a huge rise from 34 in the previous years. The scholarships are awarded based on educational performance to deserving students from across GBC. The OEC has 29 permanent donors, and three affiliated foundations that provide financial assistance to OEC for its flagship project.
Invest in Future Leaders (IFL) scholars
Educure is a bilingual (English and Urdu) annual magazine that OEC publishes. So far five editions of Educure have been published, which include articles of students and professionals from across GBC. Educure focuses mainly on writings that revolve around educational and social issues pertaining to GBC, and their remedies. It also celebrates the achievements of local heroes, in the form of profiles and interviews. It also provides a platform for budding literary writers to showcase their writing skills. Each year the magazine revolves around one central theme, for example, the main theme of the 2021 edition of Educure was Covid-19 and mental illness.
Educure, Jan 2011
The basic aim of summer camps and educational expos is to guide college students about the admission processes of different universities, and also to guide them on the career paths they can choose beyond the two mainstream fields, medical and engineering. Students from different universities and professions provide updated information and guide the undergraduate students about MCAT, ECAT, SAT and other tests required for admissions in national and international universities. In the year 2020-21, due to the Covid pandemic, mock tests for MCAT and ECAT were held online; the test material and the guidelines were uploaded to the official website of OEC. Besides these camps and mock tests, individualized mentoring sessions are also provided to clear the confusion in students' minds. In 2018 and 2019, expos and camps were organized at Aga Khan Higher Secondary School Gilgit, Sky Higher Secondary School Aliabad, Hunza, and Government Girls and Boys schools in Chalt, Nagar.
Summer Camp at Aga Khan Higher Secondary School, Gilgit in 2019
Discover GBC is a project that aims to promote Gilgit Baltistan and Chitral's beauty, culture and traditions globally. Photography contests and writing competitions are held for this purpose. In 2020, a photography contest called Quarantine and Mountains was arranged, and the shortlisted photographs were published in their flagship magazine, Educure.
Musical performance at OEC's camp in 2019. (Pic credits to Deedarullah Baig Photography)
This pilot project, initiated in 2020, aims to engage high school students in volunteerism, which will cultivate leadership skills in them, and make them understand the realities of our society. OEC's junior wing also has its focus on highlighting the importance of reading and writing, and for this purpose, it has arranged a writing contest and a workshop that focused on the art of reading and writing. To promote book reading, OEC's junior wing has installed bookshelves at various places across Gilgit city, and it wishes to add more bookshelves in the future.
Annual survey meeting of Invest in Future Leaders Program (IFLP)
Besides these well-known initiatives, OEC organizes many events and has many projects under its belt. Initiatives like the Harassment Awareness Campaign, environmental protection drives, celebrating success stories from GBC in sports, culture and education, to name a few.
Harassment Awareness and Self Defense Seminar in Gilgit
Organizations like OEC are a breath of fresh air in a country like Pakistan, which is struggling with socio-economic and educational issues. Provision of quality education is the only way to bring durable social change in society, which is the basic aim of OEC. In order to bring sustainable change, the public and private sectors need to work in harmony, which OEC is trying its best to achieve. Sponsoring the educational expenses of deserving kids and inculcating the habit of reading in young people will do a lot of good for the society, as they are the future of the country. The educational expos and summer camps are instrumental in career counseling of kids from underprivileged backgrounds, who do not have access to professional career counseling services. OEC’s services in reforming the educational landscape in GBC are monumental, and it is time that their contributions are recognized at the governmental level and they are provided with the impetus and help needed, so that they continue their services unhindered with greater fervor.
OEC's Summer camp in Aga Khan Higher Secondary School, Gilgit in 2019
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