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On April 6th and 7th, 2009, 16 teachers attended a workshop on Media Literacy. These teachers from Habib Girls’ School, St. Michael’s Convent School, Shahwilayat Public School, PECHS Girls’ School, The M I School, DHA Junior Model School, (Darakhshan branch) and Karachi Grammar School, along with TRC’s Mahenaz Mahmud, explored the issue of the impact of media in our lives … in our physical, social, emotional and intellectual environments.
When they came to TRC on Day 2 of the workshop, some teachers shared that they were viewing the billboards the previous evening on the way home, with a more critical eye … going behind the frame to explore deeper issues. ” Who produces the media we experience?” For what purpose … Who profits? Who loses? Who decides what is added and what is left out?”
One teacher shared that she was asking critical questions regarding the manipulation and manufacture of information, while watching a News Channel with her father that night. He was surprised and asked her “Aaj tum kahan gai theen?” “Where did you go today?” 🙂
By the end of Day 2, the teachers went away more ‘media literate’ and assured Mahenaz that they would work with their students in a more democratic manner, not by telling them what to watch and what not to watch, but to engage them through the many classrooms activities that were shared at the workshop, and through meaningful discussion … they would ‘help’ children understand how to manage their own media diets.
We have one more media literacy workshop planned for this year … and in August we will pilot our Media Literacy Book with two or three volunteer schools.
TRC, represented by Amima Sayeed, participated in the symposium on Public Private Partnerships organized by the Sindh Education Foundation on March 28, 2009. The symposium was part of launching SEF’s support for low-cost private schools in Sindh in collaboration with the World Bank. In the sessions, current and previous initiatives of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) were analyzed for their scope, successes and failure. Corporate Social Responsibility as an emerging mode of PPP was also discussed where corporate and civil society representatives agreed that their role was to create models that should be taken up by the public sector for improving both quality of access and quality of education. While there were few proponents of complete privatization of education, labeling public sector services as redundant and unwanted, panelists and participants largely agreed that providing quality education is the responsibility of the State and the constitutional right of every citizen. The Public Sector should not be absolved of its prime responsibility, instead well thought out and concerted efforts should be made to reconfigure educational services.
In response to a request from the Links Primary School, for a review of their current primary curriculum across all subjects, meetings were held with the management to work out the final details. The focus of the evaluation was on the prescribed booklist and syllabus, lesson planning and the implementation of the curriculum.
This evaluation project was carried out from January to mid-March 2009. Data was collected through a detailed review of the relevant curriculum documents, followed by classroom observations to assess the implementation of the planned curriculum. Visits were made to the schools for informal discussions with the Head, teachers and students, which added other perspectives to the analysis of the systems in place.
The project was conducted smoothly, mainly due to a very supportive management and teaching staff in the school. Based on the findings and recommendations for further development in each focus area, a report of the evaluation programme was submitted on 01 April, 2009.
March 21st, 2009 is World Down’s Syndrome Day. This year, Kiwanis Club of Karachi, Pakistan hosted an awareness session at the National Institute of Child Health, Jinnah Hospital to mark the day and TRC was invited to be a part of this worthy endeavour. A packed auditorium of parents, educators, therapists and individuals with Down’s Syndrome, buzzed with positive energy and enthusiasm. A series of talks were lined up to address various aspects of Down’s Syndrome from diagnosis to intervention to inclusion. TRC’s Nida Alavi was also asked to speak at the event, focusing on the rights of families of children with disabilities as well as considerations for including children with Down’s Syndrome in mainstream classrooms. Following the event, several conversations between TRC and relevant individuals have ensued regarding awareness building and training of adults working with this population. TRC looks forward to being a part of these efforts.
In response to an invitation received from the AMI School, our Senior Manager, Membership Network, Mrs. Rubina Naqvi, attended the Eco-Fest event at their school premises on 21 March 2009. Various environmental issues of nature and ecology were highlighted at different stalls, which were managed by the students. The students were so excited; they took great pride in sharing their project work with visitors. Some of the issues they chose to raise awareness about were: saving turtles, the habitats of different animals, water and power conservation, pollution and the need to plant more trees. It was a good team effort and was well organised.
Overwhelming us totally, the beginning of 2009 has brought a spate of requests which we will attempt to fulfil in good time. Given our penchant for providing quality services and not rushing into the “numbers game” we have asked our stakeholders to wait if they can … here is a sampling of the requests:
Starting on 30 December 2008, Mr. Wahid Maskatiya visited TRC with a request for training primary teachers of the schools managed by the Maskatiya Charitable Trust. He expressed a keen interest in a long-term relationship with TRC. We advised him to begin training at the pre-primary level. Details will soon be worked out; meanwhile the Trust has become a TRC member.
The new year was ushered in by a visit from M.A. International Immigration and Education Consultants. On January 01, 2009 representatives from the above-mentioned Consultant company visited TRC, to explore the possibilities of a series of collaborative teacher-training programmes, involving foreign trainers who would be hired by the Consultants to conduct workshops in Pakistan. We asked them to contact us once the faculty was onboard.
A request from Namla Kerai of Tehreek-e-Falah, was received for a workshop on “Teaching Urdu with the help of Resources” for early years teachers of a school located in Lyari. This workshop has been scheduled for 8 and 9 April 2009.
A request was received from The Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) for advice and collaboration in beginning their school outreach programme in public sector schools. Several meetings have already been held to orient them in working successfully with government schools. The new social studies and history curricula was shared, so that CAP staff can begin to develop lesson plans which will be in sync with the Ministry’s objectives. We will soon begin to identify schools for them. Meanwhile, we are helping them to reach out to our member schools and to government schools for the Shanaakht Festival scheduled for April.
The Director Education, Defence Authority Schools, visited TRC and expressed keen interest in staff development opportunities for the teachers of all the DHA schools. A detailed discussion on the various training options available was held. The DHA schools have become members of TRC and training is likely to commence during the summer vacations.
The management of Saleem Nawaz Fazaia College, Masroor has expressed the need for their own team of teacher trainers. They have requested TRC to identify and train teachers from their existing staff, who would then take on the responsibility of training and evaluating all staff members of the school. This training has been tentatively scheduled for the last week of July 2009.
The principal of the Ghulaman-e-Abbas School expressed an interest in TRC trainers visiting the Early Years section of the school, and conducting a needs’ analysis to identify areas for improvement. We have agreed that we will visit the school end March and suggest a course of action.
Queries were received from the Shahwilayat Trust regarding details about ECE training opportunities available at TRC for the Amroha Community. We have suggested that they register two participants in the TRC-Institute of ECE’s, Early Childhood Education Certificate programme 2009-2010.
Reflections Personalized Education approached TRC for an evaluation of the English and Mathematics syllabus being taught in their school. The focus of the study would be on the planning, teaching and learning being carried out in those subject areas. We are waiting to meet with members of their Board who wish to personally discuss details.
Mr. Javed Jabbar contacted TRC on behalf of the Alumni of the FG Schools located in the Cantonment area, and shared his concerns about the ‘standard of education’ in the school. He inquired about the role TRC could play in providing training and support to the teaching staff of the schools, in an effort to return it to its old glory.
Representatives from the Children’s Museum for Peace and Human Rights (CMPHR) visited us to request permission to use the TRC premises for a workshop to be conducted by their own resource person. Given our long association with HREP and collaborative work undertaken in the past, we readily agreed to their request.