Service learning is a very unique and exclusive methodology for the students and teachers to apply their knowledge and skills in real life situations. Service-learning is education in action.it helps students to become self-reliant and most contributing citizens in delivery of services to their community.

Service-learning connects young people to their community, placing them in challenging situations where they associate with adults and accumulate experiences that can strengthen traditional academic studies. Service-learning also makes classroom study relevant, as young people apply their skills in the world beyond the school’s walls with work in math, social studies, language arts, and science and other disciplines.

Why we need Service Learning in Pakistan

Educators throughout the country are struggling with the lack of student engagement, graduates who are prepared neither for higher education nor for the world of work, and violence in schools. Often students are so removed from education that they sleep through class, which may be welcome to the teacher because teaching can take place rather than dealing with disruptive behaviors. The big question is, how can we engage these students?

“Traditional modes of teaching still dominate most academic classrooms. These classrooms in both schools and universities are dominated by a passive learning process. Teachers and professors stand before a class and tell the students what they should know or they assign reading to convey it. Then to demonstrate their learning, the students are asked to parrot back what they have been told or what they have read. Many classrooms neglect in-depth discussion, student responsibility for the learning of others, and efforts to relate what is studied to their own lives and the world they live in,” Harold Howe, Rockefeller Foundation.

Advantages of Service Learning

For Students

• Enriches student learning of course material and “brings books to life and life to books”.
• Engages students in active learning that demonstrates the relevance and importance of academic work for their life experience and career choices.
• Increases awareness of current societal issues as they relate to academic areas of interest.
• Broadens perspectives of diversity issues and enhances critical thinking skills.
• Improves interpersonal skills that are increasingly viewed as important skills in achieving success in professional and personal spheres.
• Develops civic responsibility through active community involvement.

For the Community

• Provides substantial human resources to meet educational, human, safety, and environmental needs of local communities.
• Allows the energy and enthusiasm of college students to contribute to meeting needs.
• Fosters an ethic of service and civic participation in students who will be tomorrow’s volunteers and civic leaders.
• Creates potential for additional partnerships and collaboration with the campus.

For the Faculty Members and Institution

• Enriches and enlivens teaching and learning.
• Builds reciprocal partnerships with the local community.
• Creates new areas for research and scholarships, and increases opportunities for professional recognition and reward.
• Extends resources into the community and reinforces the value of the scholarship of engagement.

Click below links to see the Projects of Service Learning Program:

• Show Your Creativity Project
• Young Ambassador Program
• Service Learning competition
• Education in Action

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