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Mir Afzal Tajik - A School Teacher from a Shaky Start to a Successful
Present
 Mir
Afzal Tajik comes from Chitral district of NWFP, the remote
mountainous areas of Pakistan. He joined AKU in 1998. He reminisces
about his bygone days as a student and finally as a teacher,
and shares with us some of the challenges he faced and overcame
during his journey to success. He is presently pursuing his
doctoral studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
the University of Toronto, Canada.
Tell us about your early education ...
Since my childhood, I was encouraged to take part in social and religious
events. I often missed the joy and excitement of playing with
children my age. I went to my village school, which was the
only one in that village of over 120 households. It had no
building and, very often, no teachers. So, we students built
two classrooms for which we collected stones, sand and wood,
and our parents constructed the walls and the floor.
Learning consisted of memorizing the bits of information and knowledge
given by my teachers. My mind was trained to store the information
given and regurgitate it when asked. The instinct, capacity
and intellect I had as a normal child were frozen by the kind
of learning style I was exposed to.
For my secondary education, I moved to a town 45 kms away from my village.
Here, I found the same system of direct transmission and memorization
as in my primary school. I could not go home on short holidays,
as there was no proper road connecting my village. The only
way to go home was to walk for 10-12 hours, which I did twice
a year.
The teachers believed in corporal punishment and sarcastic remarks. Harsh
words and physical punishment was the daily routine, and,
as a result, many students left school before completing their
secondary education. Unfortunately, the teachers did not believe
in friendly relationships with their students.
Even after completing ten years of schooling, I could not write a couple
of sentences in my own words. I could not speak Urdu fluently,
my second language and the medium of instruction. Nor could
I utter a single sentence in correct English. All I had gathered
was bits of information memorized on different subjects.
Tell us some of your experiences as a teacher ...
After two years of college, which was not very different from my secondary
school, I joined the Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan
(AKES, P) as a teacher. Embarking on teaching without any
training was a daunting task. Particularly teaching grown-up
girls, some almost my age, in a very stressful and culturally
sensitive era, was the biggest challenge for me. The problems
began to resolve once I got the opportunity to participate
in the professional development programmes offered by AKES,
P. I did my Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC) and Certificate
of Teaching (CT) through the Field-Based Teachers Development
Programme of the AKES, P, Chitral, and was the highest scorer
in the internal and external examinations in both the programmes.
Later, I worked as a full-time teacher in my own school and
as a Learning Supervisor for a cluster of other schools. In
my second job, I visited different schools and provided on-the-job
support to my colleagues. I gained an insight into how different
teachers perceived the educational realities, challenges and
dilemmas.
I have also worked in the capacity of a Master Trainer for three years
during which I designed and implemented different professional
training programmes for in-service teachers. It was a phenomenal
learning experience to work with teachers from different backgrounds
and diverse experiences, but at times I would find myself
like a fish out of a pond, when some teachers acted like stone-age
obstructionists. However, there did come a time, when I was
satisfied with the degree of improvement demonstrated by the
teachers. I completed my BA and BEd
from Peshawar University
as a private student.
I got an opportunity to go on a 10-week study tour to England, where I
visited schools in Bristol and Wales, interacted with teachers,
and attended a short course. My limited proficiency in English
hampered my efforts to gain the optimum benefits from this
visit. However, from this exposure I began to realize that
the 'context' makes a difference in shaping one's career.
Having been educated in the least privileged schools of the
mountainous north, I had a tunnel vision of education: the
ability to read and write was everything. After visiting a
developed country, I realised that being a teacher entails
far more than just standing in front of the class and solving
a set of problems for the students. I reminded myself that
"aiming low is not a failure - it is a crime."
When did you join AKU-IED?
I did my M.Ed. from AKU Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED)
in 1998, which turned out to be a transforming experience for
me. I had entered a glorious academic world Ð a unique world,
different from anything else I had ever known before. My pride
in joining this special place was mixed with fear, "would
I fit in?", and uncertainty, "would I make it?".
My shaky background in this forum of intellectuals from other
parts of the world really daunted me
The biggest challenge I faced was my weak English. Being a voiceless student
in the class would have frustrated me had it not been for
the congenial and supportive environment of AKU-IED.
The experience I gained from this programme was much greater than what
I had learned from my earlier schooling and teaching combined.
Here I found the ‘enabling environment’, which encouraged
me to scrutinize my beliefs and practices about teaching and
learning. I experienced a change in my classroom practice
as I revisited the ‘brilliant ideas’, such as child-centred
teaching, activity-based teaching, using concrete materials
and lesson planning, etc.
What are you doing now?
I am now at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the University
of Toronto (OISE/UT) and working for my doctorate through
the sponsorship of the AKU-IED. My major area of studies at
OISE is Teachers’ Professional Development. I believe that
if we are to improve the quality of education in our schools
in Pakistan, we must equip our teachers with in-depth professional
insights and repertoires. I am indebted to both AKU-IED and
the AKES, P for providing me with a series of opportunities
to expand my professional capacity. These opportunities have
enabled me to live in the present while reconstructing my
shaky past into a brighter future, and this is what education
is all about.
I am looking forward to experiencing the excitements and uncertainties
of conducting a research project which aims to explore the
voices and visions of teachers and teacher educators in distant
Chitral. I believe, we as teachers can make a difference -
only when we understand the dignity of our voices! ‘Inshah Allah’ (God willing).
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