DIL establishes, adopts and maintains primary and secondary schools in Pakistan for underprivileged children, particularly girls. DIL manages 125 schools in partnerships with seven non-governmental and nonprofit organizations, and directly operates 24 schools. DIL has developed an educational approach that incorporates the following elements:

Local Partnerships- DIL's unique approach to establishing and running schools in close partnership with regional NGOs and local communities has proven to be the most successful medium for providing education to students in the most remote regions of Pakistan.

Child-Centered Education- DIL actively engages in student-centered teaching at its schools. This approach is an alternative to the traditional system of rote learning and repetitive memorization and has proven to improve teacher and student attendance and retention as well as student achievement. Child-centered education emphasizes creativity as well as social skills and critical thinking skills.

Curriculum Development- Because it is a non-governmental organization, DIL has the opportunity to enhance the standard government curriculum to better prepare students for future success. The curriculum being developed is based on best practices throughout the world and better equips students to succeed in the global marketplace.

Teacher Development- In order to raise the level of education of students, DIL has undertaken an initiative to better educate its teachers. DIL is providing training to teachers to develop student-centered teaching styles that better enhance the skill set of individual teachers. DIL recently opened the Teacher Development Center in Islamabad to provide pre-service training as well as ongoing in-service training.

Access to Technology- Technology is a powerful enabling tool that can support critical thinking and other developmental skills. DIL is in the process of implementing an aggressive plan to equip its schools with computer labs so each student will have access to technology. Students will also have access to educational software that is specifically designed to supplement DIL's curriculum.

Monitoring and Evaluation- DIL takes great strides to ensure that school projects are monitored regularly. The key to the success of DIL's projects is a robust monitoring framework and complete financial transparency. DIL's monitoring framework consists of a three-tiered approach that includes local monitors, regional monitors and national monitoring visits conducted by DIL's Board of Trustees and Executive Board members in the Islamabad head office.