Why do well-designed policies lose force by the time they reach a classroom?

I'm Amsal Malik, an education practitioner from Karachi. I take what I learn in the field to the people who make policy, and I am applying to master's programs in education and public policy to study this question properly.

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Amsal Malik smiling and gesturing as he speaks at a Habib University podium.

How I work: from field to policy

Field

I start where a policy lands: learning camps in Sindh and a girls' school in Shangla, where many students were the first in their families to attend.

Evidence

I measure what happens there, with monitoring frameworks, household data and spatial analysis in Stata, R and QGIS.

Policy

I take the findings to the people who decide, including Sindh's School Education and Literacy Department.

6,300+girls reached through 155+ learning camps in Sindh

194+teachers trained to run those camps

1,500+students in 12 Sindh Education Foundation schools I manage

1,000+students at the girls' institute I co-led in Shangla

The reach of the work

People reached, by program

Education programsOther programs

Figure 1. Program totals, counted separately. Some people may appear in more than one program.

Where the work happened

EducationYouth campsResearch

Figure 2. Where the work happened. Country outline: Natural Earth.

Three places I have tested the question

Amsal Malik presenting to a room of teachers at a Teaching at the Right Level capacity building workshop in Korangi, Karachi.

Turning learning camps into provincial evidence

I lead the Malala Fund-supported AGEiSSS project, which runs Teaching at the Right Level camps for girls and brings what we learn into Sindh's foundational literacy policy.

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The Shangla Girls School and College campus with a large seated crowd in front of it and forested hills behind.

Co-leading a girls' school in Shangla

The district's girls' literacy rate had fallen below 5%. During my time there, enrollment rose by 200 students and donors supported a campus expansion.

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A large group of young camp participants in traditional dress, seated together in a hall.

Teaching leadership to young people

Since 2023 I have trained young people with the Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board, and in 2026 I joined the core team of the Broadening Horizons Youth Camp.

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See all thirteen projects

What IMF programs meant for Pakistani households

My capstone used PSLM household data from 2012 to 2020 and interviews with economists Dr. Kaiser Bengali and Dr. Akbar Zaidi. It became a paper and a public documentary.

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Estimated effect of an IMF agreement

Figure 3. Each household index, in percent. Source: Malik (2025).

The path so far

Education workStudy, research and ventures

Figure 4. Roles by date, 2021 to 2026.

From advocating with evidence to designing policy

My ambition is to build a career in policymaking and implementation in Pakistan. In the next five years, I want to move from advocating with evidence to helping the government design and implement policies.

I still think about the girls from Shangla, many of them the first in their families to attend school. I aspire to be the person who makes that possible for girls across the country.

Partners and donors

Get in touch

amsal.karim@gmail.com | LinkedIn

Policy, programs and ventures

Most of my work is in education, from learning camps in Sindh to a girls' school in Shangla. The rest is in public health, disaster preparedness and student leadership.

Education

Public health, research and ventures

Leadership and extracurricular, Habib University

Outside class at Habib, I founded Emerge, served on two student government cabinets and helped run HUMUN.

Testing what policy does to people's lives

I have used econometrics, spatial analysis and field interviews, choosing whichever method fits the question.

I work on how education policy reaches the classroom

"I believe I can change the world", I told myself walking into Habib University, curious about how I would achieve it.

Over the next four years, that curiosity turned into research, community work and a venture of my own. Founding Emerge showed me how to inspire people around a shared vision. Training youth across the country taught me about youth development in diverse communities.

At ITA, I now lead the Malala Fund-supported AGEiSSS project across Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur, delivering Teaching at the Right Level and feeding implementation evidence into Sindh's foundational literacy and numeracy policy work. Before that, I co-led a girls' K-12 institute in a remote Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district.

My ambition is to build a career in policymaking and implementation in Pakistan. Perhaps I will change my own country first.

Work experience

Education and honors

Amsal Malik speaking at a Habib University podium in front of a purple Yohsin backdrop. — Speaking at Habib University's awards ceremony as Batch Representative, 2025.

Degree: BSc (Honors) Social Development and Policy, Habib University, 2021 to 2025. CGPA 3.80/4.00.
Scholarship: Habib Excellence Scholarship, 80% tuition, 2021 to 2025.
Yohsin Medal: Top 3 nominee for the university's highest honor, 2025.
HUSG Award: Outstanding Student Leadership Award, given to one student, 2025.
Batch Representative: Class of 2025, with the keynote at Awards Night.
Other: Dean's List, Spring 2025. Stanford International Honors Program, 2023: selected through a competitive process for summer school at Stanford University.
Coursework: Public Policy I and II; quantitative and qualitative research methods; Political Economy of Development, Political Science and Marxian Economics; Development and Social Change, Social Theory and Participatory Approaches; Program Planning and Design, and Design Thinking for Sustainable Solutions; Geoinformatics with QGIS and Social Network Analysis.

Skills and languages

Statistics: Stata, R, Excel
Spatial: ArcGIS, QGIS
Research: Mixed-methods research, policy analysis, KOBO Toolbox
Programs: Project management, MEAL design, budget management, donor reporting, grant and resource mobilization, curriculum design, training facilitation
Partnerships: Stakeholder engagement, partnership building and advocacy
Languages: Urdu (native), English (C1), Sindhi (understanding C1, speaking and writing A2)
Certification: CITI Program, Social and Behavioural Responsible Conduct of Research, 2024

Leadership and extracurricular activities

Emerge

Founder and President, 2023 to 2024

Habib University's first Youth Leadership Conference: a two-day event with 90+ volunteers, 8 partnerships and 200+ participants. Open this project

HUMUN VII

Deputy Director General, 2024

One of Pakistan's largest student-led academic conferences, with a team of 40+ and 1,500+ delegates from 50+ institutions. Earlier, Director of Finance for HUMUN V. Open this project

Young Leaders Club

Vice President, then President, 2022 to 2024

10+ leadership and personal development events, and the founding of Emerge.

Student Government

Events Cabinet Vice Chair and Ethos Cabinet member, 2022 to 2024

Events for the whole student body, including Holi, Diwali and Sugar Cubes. Open this page

Office of Student Life

Program Assistant, 2024 to 2025

Qualitative research on student perspectives, and 10+ community projects.

ITREB Pakistan

Core Team and Academic Lead, 2022 to present

I help design and deliver youth development programs, and oversee the review and dissemination of educational publications. Open this project

For the Menstruator Pakistan

Team Lead

Health advocacy across Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan. Open this project

Aamdani

Co-founder and CEO, 2025

Fintech and edtech venture incubated at IBA-CED, Cohort 2. Open this project

Tezhib Research Journal

Associate Editor, Volume IV, 2024 to 2025

I reviewed and edited submissions for the journal.