TRC News

TRC participated in the 4th Karachi International Book fair that was held from 26th – 30th December 2008, at the Karachi Expo Centre. The fair was well organised under the auspices of the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association in collaboration with the National Book Foundation. The Fair aimed to promote a reading habit amongst children and adults, and to reclaim the book culture which we are gradually losing.
Our participation received a significant response; visitors to our stall were interested in information about TRC’s objectives and our services.
Many teachers, students and people from different walks of life showed interest in our publications. Some of them stopped to tell us how much they appreciated our bi-annual educational resource “Ilm o Amal.” Complimentary copies were given to them. Several people also inquired about our membership.Kifayat Academy (Publishers) who were participating in the Fair, offered us a gratis stall to help raise awareness about our work. Thank you Rehan for your thoughtfulness.

The Annual General Body Meeting for the year July 2007 to June 2008, was held on Thursday, 18th December, 2008 at TRC. It was attended by members of the TRC Board and representatives from member schools. It provided members an opportunity to become aware of TRC’s achievements for the year; approve the audited accounts and learn about future plans. Some of the members present expressed their appreciation and shared their experiences about how they had benefitted from TRC’s professional development programmes, school evaluation and film club discussions.

We have always sought to provide our members with quality services through our workshops, publications and teaching-learning resources. What our members have to say about our services is very important to us and we generally ask them for their reactions and comments via our evaluation forms. This year, however, we decided it was high time we made personal visits again. So, over the last two months, November and December 2008, our team has been out and around Karachi visiting member schools.
Through informal conversations with school heads and coordinators, we have received valuable feedback about our workshops, our library, our publications, and film club. For the most part, members are happy with the breadth of topics covered by our workshop programme and find all our resources useful. They really appreciated the face to face visits as much as we did.

Some concerns were expressed regarding the distance of our new location. This has a direct impact on the cost of getting teachers to the venue, be it for workshops or to use our library. We appreciate the honesty with which member schools have responded to our visits, which will continue in January and February 2009. Thank you schools! Your feedback will be at the forefront when we sit down to plan for next year.

On 13 November 2008, we kicked off our Ed Links programme activities with a set of focus group discussions in Jamshoro, with students of Classes VI-VIII. These discussions are part of the process for the development of math and science learning material. The main purpose of talking with students was to understand their existing interests, issues and experiences in studying math and science in schools. It also helped in gauging their access to, and perceptions about, the use of technology for learning in and outside of school, on their own or with their peers and teachers.
Not surprisingly, of the 48 students in Jamshoro, not more than 12 had ever seen or touched a computer. The majority of these 12 were male students who were enrolled in a computer course after school or in very rare cases, had a computer at home. Some of the responses reflected very interesting perceptions about teaching and learning. For instance, almost 90% of the students said that they had not learnt anything of maths, science or technology on their own and asserted that unless there is a teacher, no learning can take place. After a few more probing questions, the students shared how they had figured out how to use mobile phones for text messaging and playing games. Examples of learning from TV channels, cricket, video games and finally each other were then shared.
During our discussions with teachers, they complained that there were too many units and exercises in the math and science textbooks, which made it hard for them to cover the syllabus. Three of the six teachers had recently attended math workshops but confessed that they had not applied anything in the classroom because of the large number of students and immense workload.We found the interaction very useful for determining the nature of the digital learning materials we will be developing. A few more focus group discussion are scheduled with students and teachers in Balochistan and in Karachi.

Standards and Early Childhood Education seem to have caught the fancy of many people in the education sector. One such exercise on standards is led by UNICEF and the Project Wing, Ministry of Education Government of Pakistan, and is part of a global initiative known as, “Early Learning and Development Standards”. Under this initiative, several countries in various regions have worked/are working to identify and establish early learning and development standards; these standards cover a wide range of children’s experiences from learning in the classroom to parenting at home.

The process started in the SAARC countries in September 2008, with a workshop in Nepal, organised by the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia. If you are interested, scroll down and read the news on ELDS Writing and Validation Workshop in Kathmandu.
From 11-12 November 2008, TRC, represented by Amima Sayeed, participated in an orientation workshop on ELDS in Islamabad. As Pakistan has hopped on to the ELDS caravan of countries and plans to focus on teaching and learning only, we at TRC feel that it is essential that instead of starting from scratch the ELDS builds on all the good work already undertaken for Early Childhood Education in Pakistan, and bridges some of the gaps in the current draft document.

Our colleague, Lila Ram decided it was time to move on and we fully respect his decision. He left TRC in November 2008, to join UNICEF Karachi. He spent eleven years with us at TRC, and learnt and grew with the organisation. He will be missed and we wish him all the best in the future.
Samira Rahimtoola, armed with an MBA (from the IBA, Karachi) in Finance, joined us in November 2008. She brings with her ten years of experience in various academic, administrative, co-ordination and HR related areas. She will help raise funds for TRC’s publications and events and take care of some of our HR related needs. As soon as her daughter is a little older and goes to school full time, Samira will be in a position to give more time to TRC. We welcome her and look forward to funding for Ilm o Amal at last!

The UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia organised a workshop titled”ELDS Writing and Validation Workshop” from 22-26 September 2008, in Kathmandu, Nepal. ELDS is the acronym for Early Learning and Development Standards. A wide range of participants from seven SAARC countries and Malaysia attended the workshop.
Pakistan was represented by the Ministry of Education (Projects Wing) and four civil society organisations including TRC. Lila Ram, was our representative.

The overall goal of the workshop was to facilitate the capacity to draft and edit the ELDS document and to facilitate the understanding of the ELDS validation model. Under a global initiative entitled “Going Global with Early Learning and Development Standards”, several countries are working to identify and establish standards which are culturally sensitive and appropriate for young children. The dimensions of ELDS are in line with the approach of a child’s holistic development.
Its good to know that ELDS is very much on the agenda of Pakistan’s Ministry of Education and that the National Curriculum for ECE will provide the basic framework for the ELDS.

UNESCO had commissioned TRC with a project designed to raise awareness of the importance of ECE, among local level decision-makers in the public sector in Sindh. The objectives of the project were: to highlight the need and significance of ECE, and to share information about innovative practices in the field of ECE.
The project included the development of an ECE Advocacy Resource Book (in English, Urdu and Sindhi) and workshops in two districts for district level decision makers for which TRC worked in partnership with the Directorate of Literacy and Non-formal Education.
The Sindhi version of the Advocacy Resource Book took a little longer than the Urdu one to translate and edit, but now, in May 2008 it is ready and has been disseminated widely. Copies are available at TRC, please call and ask us if you are interested.A PDF is also available. You can download it from our Resources section on Interact.

From July 29 – August 01 2008, we conducted another 15-hour workshop for 26 Kindergarten teachers in Orangi. These teachers who work in schools supported by DIL (Development in Literacy), were very excited about learning to set up a child-friendly learning environment.

The workshop titled “Ibteda-e-Bachpan aur Khushgawar Taleemi Mahaul” addressed the following topics: What is a Learning Environment, Classroom Organisation, Learning Corners, Daily Routines, Non-Threatening Environments and the Teachers’ Role in an Early Years’Classroom.
Through brainstorming, group work, discussions and role-play teachers engaged in active learning. Some participants applied the themes of the workshop even further. “I gained a lot of self-confidence and had the opportunity to reflect on my own areas for development,” expressed one teacher.

We bid adieu to participants with the message that the right environment promotes feelings of well-being and as a result, the motivation to learn and focus.

Sixteen HANDS (Health and Nutrition Development Society) staff members benefited from a 45-hour Training of Trainers workshop titled “?Sarkari Schools Tabdeeli ki Janib Gamzan” from June 9-14, 2008. This workshop was requested by HANDS (an implementing partner) and conducted by TRC, in our role as technical assistance partner in the RNE (Royal Netherlands’ Embassy) supported RCC Project.

The workshop sought to equip participants with the skills to train primary schoolteachers with mathematics content and interactive teaching in classes 1 and II.

“Teaching methods were effectively communicated and we received complete support from the trainers,” asserted one participant. Four modules were taught incorporating the Meaningful Learning Environment, Pedagogy of Maths – Making Maths Fun, Classroom Assessments and Workshop Leading Skills.
Teachers responded enthusiastically to the variety of methods that were both discussed and applied through individual activities, games, case studies, lectures, role-plays and group work.

We received encouraging feedback from both participants and HANDS as they found the training extremely relevant for their schools and for the trainings they would conduct. The maths module was considered very valuable for field training.

On a related note, we have been contributing to the Releasing Confidence and Creativity (RCC) project through a variety of contributions since the project’s inception. RCC is a programme for Early Childhood Development (ECD) and focuses on supporting ECD practices and structures in communities, schools, NGOs and the government.