TRC News

From June 9 – 11 2009, a three-day, 18-hour, school-focused training session was conducted for primary and secondary teachers. It was attended by 15 participants who had been earmarked as future mentors, for the professional development of the remaining teachers. The workshop focused on the concept, role and skills of a successful mentor and also refreshed teachers’ knowledge and experience about effective teaching. Mrs. Naqvi successfully involved the teachers in group discussions on the challenges of mentorship and how to address them.

On June 09, 2009 Mahenaz from TRC visited the little pre-school located in the Women’s Jail, Central Prison. She was delighted to meet the Superintendent, Ms. Sheeba Shah, the Assistant Superintendent and the teachers. The little school was well maintained, with child sized furniture and bright, developmentally appropriate pictures on the walls. Mahenaz read a story to the children about an elephant, and soon they were totally involved, wondering what would happen next and chatting happily about story and the pictures in the book. The children then went off to their mothers, while Mahenaz spent the next hour, showing the teachers how to use the PTB. We look forward to feedback from the Superintendent about the PTB, and hope that it is hanging on the walls of the jail pre-school, within reach of the children.

On 29 May, 2009, Ms. Sharmila Farooqui, advisor to the Sindh Chief Minister visited us at TRC. She appreciated our publications and showed great interest in our research studies on ECE. She was curious about our year-long ECE Certificate Programme; at the time a Field Education seminar was in progress. She chatted with the faculty and students who come from a diverse range of backgrounds, from the public and private sectors. She was truly moved by the motivation and commitment of the students … at the end of 45 minutes, she said wistfully, “I think I’d like to do this course as well.”

The Pehla Taleemi Basta which she saw next, truly fascinated her. In her words ” I’m enthralled by this Basta and I’m an adult … Can you imagine how 3 year olds will respond to it?” This led to her sending one to the little pre-school in the Women’s Jail, in the Central Prison, and making a commitment to purchase 1000 PTBs for children across Sindh. Needless to say, we are delighted.

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Daily DAWN

THE NEWS

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

From May 27 – 29, 2009, Mrs. Rubina Naqvi from TRC, conducted a workshop at the DHA college premises, for 30 newly inducted teachers from different branches of the DHA schools.

This 15 hour workshop, was attended by teachers from their pre-primary, primary and secondary level schools. The focus of the workshop, as the title implies, was Effective Teaching. The content included important aspects of the learning process, the concept of active learning and different curriculum perspectives.

The highlights of the training session were: the active participation of each member of the group; the interest expressed in their professional development and the highly interactive discussions, despite the large group size. The teachers are keen to visit TRC and use our library to enhance their understanding of the teaching-learning process. The challenges were logistical and we have learnt not to get bogged down with these.

AMI School turns 25! They organised a concert at the school premises on 22 May 2009, to observe the day. Rubina Naqvi attended.

On 23 May 2009, BVS Parsi School marked the completion of 150 years of providing quality education to students in Karachi. The evening began with Alumni, Board and faculty reminiscing about the history and achievements of this prestigious institution. The ambience in the courtyard of the well-maintained building lent itself to the grandeur of the occasion.

Happy Home School Turns 60! Mahenaz Mahmud attended the anniversary celebrations on June 08, 2009. The staff and management paid a glowing tribute to Mrs. Mariam Farooqui, the founder and spirit behind Happy Home. All teaching and ancillary staff who have faithfully served the school were acknowledged with awards and certificates.

The HumQadam Foundation (HQF) endeavours to promote inclusion of children with disabilities, by providing one-on-one resource teachers to accompany them into mainstream classrooms.
A 6 – part series of workshops was led and successfully completed at HQF by Nida Alavi from TRC between December 2008 and May 2009. The workshop series focused on assisting HQF’s resource teachers with issues identified by them during an informal needs’ assessment discussion. These areas of concern then became the focus areas for the 6 sessions held at HQF. Focus areas included the state of special education in Pakistan, collaboration between classroom teachers and resource teachers, designing assessment and instruction, managing behaviour, supporting social skills as well as promoting joint attention in children with disabilities.
Early in the series, in the spirit of affecting more sustainable change, an additional dialogue was planned and facilitated on 5 January 2009 between HQF’s resource teachers and the pre-primary/primary teachers of The Learning Tree school where several children with disabilities are enrolled through HQF. Being the first conversation of its kind, after some initial hesitation, the teachers opened up and shared their views and concerns. Mutual issues as highlighted by HQF and the administration of The Learning Tree were addressed too. As a result, change has already come with honest follow-through from all the teachers on the troubleshooting strategies shared during the dialogue. We applaud them for their efforts and hope such dialogue continues to improve the educational experiences of children with disabilities in their care.
Throughout the series at HQF, its teachers were interactive in sharing their experiences and also receptive to recommendations for enhancing the support their students with disabilities are receiving. Being the first step in HQF’s partnership with TRC, we hope that this promising collaboration is extended further in even more directions towards enhancing the quality of special education in Pakistan.

On Saturday May 9, 2009, TRC’s Nida Alavi attended a workshop held at Ziauddin Hospital in collaboration with AKU-IED. Ziauddin College of Speech Language Therapy (ZCSLT)’s Dr. Amina Siddiqui spoke to participants about how teachers in a mainstream classroom environment can support children with auditory disabilities.

Issues with hearing are extremely common among children and yet often go unnoticed. Furthermore, even with a diagnosis, children with auditory disabilities (who are completely capable of functioning effectively in a typical classroom) often do not have the benefit of teachers who understand their needs and can therefore facilitate their learning.

The workshop was interactive, both in contributions from the audience as well as the use of media like video clips. Furthermore, it was useful in comprehending how auditory disabilities can impact children within the classroom and therefore, how they can be supported in becoming independent learners.

04 June, 2009
Bushra Khan and Dr. Bilal Iqbal Avan from the Department of Psychology, University of Karachi and Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, U.K. respectively, are conducting a study about the behaviour challenges of children aged 11 to 12.

The purpose of this research is to identify the link between environmental factors, physical growth and children’s behaviour challenges. Behaviour challenges have been broadly defined as persistent maladaptive patterns of behaviour that interfere with a child’s daily life: socially, emotionally and academically.

Bushra Khan requested Mahenaz Mahmud of TRC, to be part of a small working group tasked with reviewing the Urdu translation of the data collection questionnaire. The working group met twice at TRC on May 15 and 20, 2009. TRC was also requested to facilitate the data collection from member schools. Saba Siddiq from TRC liaised with schools and Bushra Khan. The last data collection visit was made on June 03. A HUGE Thank You from TRC to all the schools, teachers, students and parents who participated in the study.

It is hoped that the findings of the study will help government authorities, community health workers, community service providers, schools and parents to understand the factors responsible for children’s behavioural problems and design programmes/strategies to enhance positive child development.

Bushra says: “Through the forum of TRC we will be happy to share the school level study findings and are also willing to provide support on the issue of child behaviour challenges.”

After several postponements due to the law and order situation in the country, the Annual TRC Fundraising event finally took place on Thursday, 30 April 2009, at the DHA Golf Club. The fashion show was presented by ‘Ensemble’, followed by dinner and a musical concert by Atif Aslam. The event was a great success in terms of arrangements and ambiance, as can be judged by the guests’ enjoyment and feedback. It is hoped that the proceeds of the event will provide some financial relief to TRC.

On April 29 and 30, the Ministry of Education (MoE) and UNICEF held a Training and Consultation Meeting to discuss Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) in Pakistan. The meeting was held at TRC on the insistence of the MoE and UNICEF, owing to TRC’s long-standing contributions to ECE, policy making and public-private collaborations. Members of various public and private organizations working in the field of education attended. From TRC, Amima Sayeed and Nida Alavi participated.

The intended purpose of ELDS is to formulate standards which can establish measurable objectives for the learning and development of children. A few months ago, representatives of the MoE and UNICEF traveled to Nepal to collaborate with regional stakeholders followed by meetings across Pakistan. ELDS, is a global initiative, currently being addressed at a regional level with country specific standards being drafted; these were discussed at the meeting.

Over the two days, facilitators of the ELDS initiative shared the background of ELDS and information about ECE policy, programmes and statistics in Pakistan. Their intention was also to engender more sensitivity and therefore advocacy for ECE. They also presented some basic information about the National Curriculum for ECE (which TRC was instrumental in authoring). Following some detail about the design and content of ELDS, on Day 2, participants were divided into groups and each group given a specific competency of the document to examine. Competency-specific comments were shared in a collective feedback session, with a brief concluding note from the facilitators on the future course of action for ELDS.

Unfortunately, proceedings were hampered by unrest in Karachi on April 29, which resulted in reduced attendance on April 30. However, the meeting did go on and one hopes that future public-private initiatives are not further jeopardized by the uncertain times we live in.