KARACHI, Jan 2: As many as 5,819 government school teachers were trained in English language teaching and different management strategies during the last year, sources in the Sindh Education department said.

The in-service teachers, majority of whom were untrained, were imparted professional and managerial skills through different training programmes, organized by the Provincial Institute of Teachers Education (PITE), with the collaboration of different UN bodies and donor agencies.

The institute, which was established and made functional with the support of Asian Development Bank in 1996, remained almost ineffective till 1993, when the Sindh government transferred the administrative control of all colleges (Elementary and Higher) in the province to the PITE, the source added.

A batch of 40 teachers of different categories, drawn from all districts, were trained by the British Council at one elementary college at Karachi in English language teaching.

The batch, however, had been recently deployed as master trainers for conducting 90-hour programme for about 1,120 male and female primary school teachers in four Sindh districts, Thatta, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Khairpur.

Another programme was organized in different district head quarters of the province to train different categories of education department employees. A total of 401 department employees were trained in strategic management, particularly regarding the roles and responsibilities of district education offices under the power devolution plan of present government.

Under another scheme, meant mainly for about 12,000 untrained primary school teachers, training is being imparted in phases. During the year 2003, a total of 3,057 teachers, including 1,464 female teachers, were trained in two phases.

PITE Director General Dr Mahboob Ali Shaikh said that his organization also held a two-day workshop, with the support of Unesco, to develop proposals for implementing the National Plan of Action on Human Rights. A total of 41 personnel, including 15 females, participated in the workshop for formulation of provincial action plan.

About 480 female teachers participated in another programme named Quality Primary Education, organized by PITE, in collaboration with Unicef. On the other hand 150 members of the School Management Committees were trained at Khairpur with the objective of making them understand the role of SMCs in improving quality of education in the district, he added.