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Pakistani educators return from United States

Staff Report

LAHORE: A group of 15 Pakistani educators recently returned home after completing a three-week summer course at Plymouth State University (PSU), New Hampshire, the United States.

Funded by the US State Department, the Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) was organised by PSU and the Lahore-based NGO Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), stated a press release on Friday.

“People-to-people interaction helped us remove misconceptions about each other,” said ITA’s Saima Hasrat, while University of Education’s Mubasher Nadeem said the programme “broadened my vision”. Other participants called the programme a “wonderful experience” and the graduation ceremony a “memorable event”.

In Washington DC, the group met South and Central Asian Affairs deputy assistant secretary John Gastright and Educational and Cultural Affairs deputy assistant secretary Alina Romanowski. The educators also met representatives from Senator Judd Gregg’s office, Pakistani Embassy, and State Department’s Education and Cultural Affairs office. The 2007 programme was steered by PSU’s Blake Allen, and it focused on research and evaluation techniques to track the impact of teacher education.

Since the programme’s beginning in 2004, 80 educators, including senior subject specialists at the secondary level, have participated in it. The categories covered in the programme are English, mathematics, science and school leadership.

According to ITA, Pakistani alumni have trained around 10,000 educators in Pakistan in their role as master-trainers.

The selected participants this year represented following institutions: Departments of Education in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sindh Education Foundation, Allama Iqbal Open University, University of Education, Directorate of Staff Development, University of Punjab, Federal College of Education, Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust, and Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi.

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