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Training the teachers to ‘Teach to the Future’
THE dearth of well qualified training manpower has been a major hindrance in Pakistan’s IT development. In collaboration with the government, Intel Pakistan launched a programme last year to train more than 50,000 teachers in the country.
The “Teach to the Future” programme is being sponsored by Intel under its Innovation in Education initiative. As part of the drive to disseminate IT education throughout the four provinces, Intel has recently donated a computer lab to the Government Model Elementary College of Education, Hussainabad, in Karachi. This was the second computer lab donation made by Intel to a tertiary institution in Pakistan. The first lab was donated to FG College for Women, Islamabad.
At the installation ceremony, attended by a large number of Intel trained teachers, Principal Mrs Maqsood Jehan, Intel Pakistan Corporation’s Country Manager, Mr Kamil F Hasan and media representatives, Sindh Secretary of Education, Mr Nazar Mahar was the chief guest.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr Mahar asserted the need for IT training for teachers and students today.
Mr Kamil Hasan, in his speech, highlighted Intel’s resolve to train 50,000 teachers by December this year.
Throughout Pakistan, 26,000 teachers in 15 cities have already been trained under Intel programme, he informed the audience. Of these, 6,000 teachers were trained in Sindh alone, he added.
The chief guest and the media representativestoured the computer lab where teachers from several educational institutions were demonstrating the educational programmes and presentations that they had prepared after completing the training under the Teach to the Future programme.
Mr Kazim, a teacher for more than two decades, had prepared an attractive presentation on the X-rays. He said, “It is after the administration and the examination process, as well as institutions are computerized, and the teachers become computer literate that this technology will really benefit the students.”
He added, “We are still stuck with old blackboards, whereas we need multimedia projectors to interact with the students.”
Ms Syeda Zohra Jabeen, a chemistry teacher at Government Boys Secondary School No 14, Orangi, had put on display her multimedia presentation on chemical bonding for her class 9 students.
Explaining the significance of her effort she said, “A relationship should be developed between the subject and technology. Students are keen to learn, and it was their willingness to learn that encouraged me to help them discover their own creative skills through computer. In the class we have to work hard to develop an interest within the students.”
Most of the teachers who had acquired the training admitted that they had never before laid their fingers on a keyboard, let alone work on a computer.
Mr Ahmed Hilal, of Jinnah Government College, was sure that the time was ripe to help the students explore their own potential through information technology. He had developed a website on Banking in Business for his intermediate commerce students.
“Students do take interest. It is now up to us, the teachers, to try to educate and motivate them. With the help of my website, I try to divert their attention from the time-wasting pastime of chatting on the net, to the more constructive activity of searching for information on the web.”
The principal of the college, Mrs Maqsood Jehan, commenting on how IT can be made an integral part of the education system, said that the government has to play a more active part.
“At this computer lab, we hope to teach more teachers. We believe that every teacher should be computer literate. Teachers have shown a lot of interest by taking time out of their schedule to come and learn how to operate computers.”
The writer is a Dawn sub editor
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