KARACHI: The University of Karachi has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Durbeen, a local non-profit organisation, under which the latter would introduce innovations and global best practices in teacher education system at the Government Elementary College of Education (GECE), Hussainabad, a KU-affiliated institution.

The signing ceremony was held recently at the KU vice chancellor secretariat.

The dean, Faculty of Education, KU, Professor Dr Nasir Salman, and the chief executive officer, Durbeen, Salma Ahmad Alam, inked the documents.

Early last month, the Sindh government had announced that it had outsourced the management of GECE, Hussainabad to Durbeen with the aim to improve its infrastructure, academics and administration. The initiative was described as a flagship project in teachers’ education in Sindh.

As per the MoU, Durbeen will apply for the affiliation of GECE, Hussainabad with KU fulfilling codal requirements specifying the academic cycle at GECE, Hussainabad for the pilot project which will run from August to May.

Under the partnership, Durbeen will coordinate the BEd Honours (Elementary) curriculum review exercise (including course assessments) between the faculty of the GECE, KU and the University of Helsinki, Finland. The outcome of the review exercise will be submitted to the KU department of teacher education for assessment.

Durbeen will implement the enriched scheme of studies and BEd Honours (Elementary) course syllabi at the GECE starting from August 2019.

For uniform teaching learning and assessment practices, the NGO will host joint training sessions of the faculty at the KU’s department of teacher education and GECE Hussainabad at mutually convenient times.

The organisation will establish Subject Support Forum (SSF) for each course in order to share best practices between the faculty at KU’s department of teacher education, GECE, Hussainabad and the University of Helsinki.

The university would award degrees to the graduating class at GECE Hussainabad, upon successful completion of the BEd (Hons) Elementary degree programme, subject to all codal formalities through the affiliation committee.

Youth advised to adopt positive attitude

At a seminar organised by KU’s psychology department, speakers urged youth to become agents of change and help build peace in communities.

They were also educated on the pros and cons of social media and advised to exercise caution in its use.

Titled ‘Role of youth in peace building, seedling of hope never dies’, speakers discussed strategies to empower, channelise and transform youth in a positive direction so that they could play their role in developing a peaceful society.

“The social media giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple know how to manipulate the public mindset. They have hired nerve-biology experts to design a system which eventually traps users.

“As we have seen, people are nowadays spending more time on smart devices and social media and other applications rather [than] meeting or seeing each others,” said Asad Rezzvi, a motivational speaker.

He advised students to give priority to their health and spend more time with family and friends and set a list of goals in life and work hard to achieve them.

Dr Rubeena Kidwai, senior clinical psychologist, urged students to stay positive and never let negative thoughts and feelings overcome them.

Chairperson of KU’s psych­ology department Dr Farah Iqbal and deputy dire­ctor, Federal Inves­tigating Agency, Shahzad Haider also spoke.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2019