TRC News

M.Ed. at the University of Sydney

Lila Ram, Manager Communication and Information is away for a year, pursuing a Master of Education degree in Research Methodology at the University of Sydney. His scholarship is funded by the Australian Government’s aid agency, AusAID. For his first semester, he has opted for the following four courses: Developing a Research Proposal; School-based Management and Effective Schools; Quantitative Analysis and Qualitative Analysis. We look forward to having Lila back with us in August 2007 … until then we keep in touch by e-mail.

Study Tour to Egypt

Sadiya Azeem, Member of our Training & Development Team went on a study tour to Egypt (July 22 – 29 2006) as part of the RCC group, supported by AKF-USIAD. The purpose of the tour was to ‘study’ Early Childhood Education and Development models and practices being followed by the Government of Egypt, and to share the RCC model with the Egyptian counterparts. Early childhood services in Egypt are delivered mainly through three ministries. The ministry of education is responsible for early education activities and preschools. The ministry of insurance and social affairs, takes care of daycare centres and nurseries, and primary health care activities are provided mainly through the ministry of health. Sadiya tells us that only 12% of preschool age children are enrolled in any type of ECE programme and that enrolment rates for males, are higher than those for female children. Sounds familiar?

European ECE Researchers Association (EECERA)

Mahenaz Mahmud, Director Programme Development went to Reykjavik, Iceland to attend the 16th EECERA Annual Conference: Democracy and Culture in Early Childhood Education (August 30-September 02). In collaboration with our linkage partner Ryerson University, we had sent an abstract of our ECE research project conducted in Karachi’s government schools, to the conference committee. We were delighted that it was accepted!

Mahenaz and Donald made a presentation during one of the many breakout sessions. Their audience was in awe of TRC’s success, in establishing ‘democratic’ ECE classes in over-populated classrooms in some of Karachi’s most underprivileged areas. They were also impressed with our successful policy level breakthrough in getting an ECE Curriculum formalized by the Ministry of Education.

The conference had two themes: Democracy and Culture. The first theme looked at the role of ECE in creating a democratic society, based on the premise that if children have the opportunity to practice democracy through decision-making, communication, negotiation and participation in projects of relevance, they will be likely to encourage the formation and growth of democracy in their societies. Culture, the second theme of the conference, aimed to ask critical questions such as: How can children contribute to and create the wider culture?

How is a society’s culture reflected in its early childhood education? What is the influence of globalization on early childhood education? Check out EECERA conference details at http://www.congress.is/eecera2006/

Our library has a new set of Classroom Management DVDs! Nancy Morton wanted to use these videos for her workshop in July. The set however, was pretty bulky and she wanted to copy them on a CD, so she asked the company for permission to copy them. When Jo Lynne Jones, one of the co-owners of Fredric H. Jones & Associates, Inc. in Santa Cruz, heard that it was for a non-profit in Karachi (she visited our website), she donated the entire set of DVD’s on Classroom Management from their ‘Tools for Teaching‘ series. So Nancy got a slimmer package to carry … DVDs instead of the videos she had, and TRC got a new set of resources for classroom management. Nancy brought a small DVD player along and she donated that to TRC. Do call us and come along in a group to watch these DVDs. We have been in touch with Jo Lynne Jones, and if you are reading this Jo, Thanks again!

Nancy Morton and her team of teachers from the Little Rock district of Arkansas, USA came back to TRC in July this year. They so enjoyed working with TRC and its member schools last year, that they were determined to return. We have to thank Don Heath again, from Innovative Humanitarian Solutions USA, for making their visit possible. This year we didn’t need to spend loads of time on e-mail planning the workshops … the team had become familiar with and understood our needs and context.

This summer, Nancy and her team conducted four workshops: Developing Moral Values among Young Children, Maintaining Discipline in Secondary Schools, Improving Spelling Skills and Classroom Management. The workshops were full of learning, new ideas, warmth and energy.

The Indus Resource Centre (IRC) contacted TRC for the training of 49 teachers of Classes Kacchi to 2, of 13 newly opened IRC schools. The TRC team spent six days in Sehwan in early August to conduct this 48-hour workshop which introduced teachers to all the dimensions of teaching and learning in early years’ classrooms.

HOPE and Proctor & Gamble Pakistan, jointly requested TRC for training of HOPE’s community school teachers. At the end of April, TRC met the teachers over a three hour session to conduct a needs assessment and to motivate the teachers to attend workshops. In July, two 12-hour workshops on How Children Learn were conducted for 50 teachers.

In December 2005, the Education Development Centre (EDC), an ESRA consortium partner, based in Washington D.C. negotiated a project with TRC to build the capacity of selected school heads, in order to improve the quality of primary education in schools operating under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). TRC agreed to undertake this ESRA Plus Initiative project, which entails working with FDE school heads and EDC consultants over a period of six months, to foster a new model of school leadership, through a series of workshops.TRC staff conducted the first workshop of this series in June 2006, in Islamabad. This 24-hour workshop titled”Initiating Change in FDE Schools through School Leadership” was conducted for school heads and deputy school heads. It aimed to develop the participants’ leadership skills and abilities, enhance their knowledge and understanding of school vision, mission and values, and change management, so that they could operate their schools effectively.

The second 24-hour workshop, for the same participants was held in Karachi in July. The topics covered were team dynamics and team building, managing staff and parent-teacher meetings effectively, children’s needs and active learning and school development planning. In groups, the participants made school development plans; as an assignment they will now make their own individual school development plans.

Classroom management, curriculum implementation, assessment and the principal’s role in all of these areas, were also addressed.

The last workshop of the series will be held in September.

UNESCO has 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 are: to highlight the need and significance of ECE, and to share information about innovative practices in the field of ECE.

The project entails the development of an ECE Advocacy Resource Book and workshops in two districts for district level decision makers. TRC will work in partnership with the Directorate of Literacy and Non-formal Education.

The second session of the Film Club, held on June 17, was the occasion for a viewing of THE SONG SPINNER, an allegorical tale that delights children and elders alike and presents many possibilities for in-school use.

The audience, though small, found the film “exciting”, “important”, and “stunning”, judging by their comments. The debates that followed were energetic and covered the use/misuse of laws, the importance of music in education, and the ineffectiveness of some teaching methodologies – certainly a lot to extract from a film. It is, in fact, these discussions that are the soul of these sessions.

A longer break until the holding of the next movie was decided upon, in view of the holidays.

Watch for the announcement of our next, very exciting movie!

The two screenings of CHEATERS (May 6 & May 20) elicited a very positive response, not just to the film that was unaimously considered of great value, but also to the idea behind this club.

Audience suggestions that have been noted are:
1. To extend the screenings to include Music Videos and other audio-visual material that students access, in order for teachers to be aware of the realities and help guide parents/students accordingly.
2. Provide members access to some of the rarer films shown at these sessions. Discussions are being held within the TRC on how best to address this issue.

It must be noted that the films shown at these sessions are used as examples of how such material can be used in education. Schools are in no way confined to, or even expected to, hold screenings of these particular films, although they may find the examples interesting and do so.

TRC recently assisted TCF develop criteria for selecting potential Workshop Leaders from amongst their teachers and staff. The criteria were drawn from TRC’s experience in the field of teacher training, and developed to help TCF assess potential trainers.

After completing the selection process, TCF requested that TRC provide training for their new workshop leaders on language development. Entitled “Language and Learning,” the 15 hour workshops dealt with how children learn, how language develops, and how to support and correct language development in the primary years. The workshops were held in April, in both Karachi and Lahore, for the benefit of 50 participants. Each of these workshop leaders will be responsible in turn for training 25 teachers, meaning that 1250 teachers within the TCF school network will benefit from the TRC training.

TRC is very happy to be reconnecting with TCF. Soon after TCF was established in 1995, TRC helped train teachers for their new schools. By renewing this partnership, TCF will be looking towards TRC to continue training their workshop leaders, who will in turn be training teachers throughout TCF’ schools.