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Sindh Education
Officials Appreciate AKU-IED Programmes for Professional Development
of Teachers and Managers
The opening
ceremony of the first Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA)
-supported Certificate in Education: Primary Education (Mentorship
Focus) Programme for district supervisors, learning coordinators
and resource persons of elementary and primary schools of
the selected districts of Sindh was held at Aga Khan University
Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), Karachi.
The primary
mission of AKU is the development of quality human resources
that are trained to respond to the unique needs of the developing
world.
The 10-week
field-based programme has been designed on the basis of needs
assessment of education officials of Thatta, Hyderabad, Khairpur
and Sukkur. Thirty-two participants are attending this programme.
The programme is funded by USAID through the Research Triangle
Institute-Education Sector Reform Assistance (RTI-ESRA).
Welcoming
the course participants, AKU-IED Director, Dr Gordon MacLeod
said the participants, by working with other teachers and
educators in their regions, could make a difference in the
education system of the country. In this way, he said, they
would multiply the impact of AKU-IED's programmes and help
improve the quality of education of district-level schools. "The aim of the programme is to help build the capacity of
schools in the selected districts," noted Nasim Ejaz, District
Education Officer, Khairpur. She appreciated the quality of
professional development programmes at AKU-IED and advised
the participants to actively participate in the programme's
activities to improve the quality of education in selected
clusters of schools. Iffat Nayyar, the officiating programme
officer of ESRA, highlighted ESRA's initiatives and said they
were designed to improve policy and planning, enhance professional
development opportunities for educators and administrators,
increase youth and adult literacy, and promote and facilitate
public-private and public-community partnerships for promoting
education. She praised AKU-IED for offering quality programmes
that meet international standards.
In her
closing remarks, Dr Nilofar Vazir, Coordinator of the ESRA
programme at AKU-IED, reiterated the importance of mentorship
support at all levels in assisting, extending and monitoring
the work of mentors. "The reality and success of these initiatives
lie in a long-term and sustainable growth and development
of mentors at the grass-root level as a tripartite relationship
of policy-makers, teacher educators and mentors. The aim of
AKU-IED is to create a critical mass at all levels to bring
about a whole culture of change in the quality of education," she added.
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