The USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) was conceived by USAID and the Government of Pakistan to address the reading deficit in Pakistani schools. PRP aims to improve children’s Urdu and Sindhi reading skills in grades 1 and 2 and through pilot interventions improve reading in Pashto. Project focus areas are Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K), Balochistan, Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Sindh. This data asset contains the data from the Read Foundation Evaluation Survey carried out in the Pakistan Reading Project intervention regions including Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) in 2017 and 2019. The sampling designed called for a two-stage cluster sample. In the first stage, sample schools were selected from the available READ Foundation’s school population. Four districts were randomly selected from AJK along with two of GB (Gilgit and Astore), where the READ Foundation has its schools. Schools were elected as per available proportion. The ratio of rural/urban & summer/winter schools from the available district school population was also considered. In the second stage, 15 students from grade one and 15 from grade two were randomly selected within each selected sampled school. Respective grade level teachers were also interviewed and their teaching practices were also observed during the lesson delivery in the classrooms. The data were collected at two different stages of project implementation. Firstly as the baseline and secondly, after two years as end-line, when the students received complete two years of treatment. The study data is split into three datasets. The dataset 1 includes the data about student EGRA scores and interview questions about reading practices at school and home/community. Dataset 2 includes the data of teacher questionnaire and dataset 3 includes teacher classroom observations regarding teachers’ teaching practices in the classroom.

The Pakistan Reading Project (PRP) is a $165 million, seven-year initiative launched in July 2013 that aims to improve the quality of early grade reading instruction for 1.3 million public and private primary school students across Pakistan. The PRP implements activities through three main components: (1) improved classroom learning environment for reading, (2) improved policies and systems for reading, and (3) community-based support for reading. This data asset includes evaluation results from PRP activities implemented in Balochistan. The original project design included simultaneous implementation in all schools. However, through contract modifications, the project split its interventions into three cohorts: PRP Cohort 1&2, PRP Cohort 3, and Light Treatment. Datasets with names including "2013-2017 Baseline Midline" include baseline and midline data. For baseline-midline analyses, PRP Cohort 1&2 (2017) compares with Full Treatment (2013) and Light Treatment (2017) compares with Light Treatment (2013). PRP Cohort 3 (2017) is considered a baseline and the dataset's file name includes "2017 Baseline."