Exploring Teachers’ Experiences of Implementing Summer Camps in Public Schools of District Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

In the year of 2026, the Elementary and Secondary Education Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, started the Summer Camp Initiative which provided opportunities for children to learn through hands-on and child-centered learning activities during the summer vacation. The role of teachers in the implementation of the school-based initiative is central, but their experiences have been less researched. The current phenomenological study aimed at understanding the experiences of 12 public-school teachers purposively selected from District Dera Ismail Khan. Semi-structured interviews were employed for data collection, and Colaizzi's method was used for data analysis. There were six themes that were identified: initial expectations and uneven preparation; change in routine teaching practices; student engagement in meaningful but inconsistent ways; the effect of the local context; professional learning through improvisation; and priorities for the future of improving camps. Teachers found the camps useful with regard to stories, games, art, experiments and group activities. They also highlighted the following challenges as being related to extreme heat, irregular attendance, lack of teaching materials and unclear program expectations. The results showed that this half month activity had opportunities to use activity-based learning, but its success depends highly on the teacher's personal efforts as there was no consistent support system. Advanced orientation of teachers, adequate though moderate budgets, scheduling according to changes in the climate, better communication with families, and monitoring of the quality of learning, rather than paperwork, are recommended in this study.