The graduation ceremony of the Certificate in Education: Primary Education (Mentoring Focus) for teachers and education department officials of selected districts of Balochistan and Sindh was held at the Multipurpose Hall of AKU-IED on Dec 24, 2004. The ceremony marked the successful completion of AKU-IED's first year of ESRA-sponsored programmes for the two provinces.

(L-R) Dr Iffat Farah, Rana Hussain and Iffat Nayyar listen to participants.

Delivering her speech as chief guest, Dr Iffat Farah, Head of Research and Policy Studies at AKU-IED, congratulated the course participants (CPs) on their graduation. She praised AKU-IED's contribution towards capacity building of teachers, supervisors, learning coordinators, resource persons and senior government officials through the ESRA programmes.

Referring to the CPs, she asked them not to neglect their classes when they go back to their context. "If you break relations with your class, you won't be able to teach others."

She asked the CPs to continue doing research so that they could develop their own action plans.

Dr Muhammad Memon, Director, AKU-IED addresses the graduates.

Despite his busy schedule, Director of AKU-IED, Dr Muhammad Memon, made an appearance. In his speech, he said AKU-IED, with the help of the government and teachers of Balochistan, would continue its struggle for providing quality education to the people.

He said mentoring was a new and innovative approach. He added that his experience showed that primary school teachers were skillful and mindful of their responsibilities, and asked the CPs to understand their profession and refine their teaching skills accordingly. "We need to understand our profession so that we could bring a lasting change in society. Until and unless we don't do that, we won't be able to achieve anything".

Programme Associate of ESRA (Sindh), Iffat Nayyar, spoke about the working of ESRA. She said its purpose was to build the capacity of teachers and institutions. "We are working to create a sustainable structure."

Graduates and facilitators of the Mentoring Programme.

She hoped that when the CPs go back to their context they would adopt the skills of planning, caring, and reflecting so that they could provide quality education to the children of their areas.

While sharing their reflections of the programme, the CPs said though they came from different backgrounds, they were able to amalgamate without any difficulty. They thanked their facilitators for teaching them new methods and skills. They assured their facilitators that they would adopt the newly-acquired skills and put them into practice once they go to their context.

Earlier in her welcome address, Rana Hussain, Coordinator of ESRA Programmes at AKU-IED, extended her good wishes to the graduates of the programme. She briefed the participants about the planning, implementation and expected outcomes of the programme.

A total of 33 CPs graduated in the Mentoring programme. The ceremony was attended by AKU-IED faculty, staff and students.