KARACHI, June 24: A four-week specialized course in “Teaching Skills Development” for newly-appointed lecturers at government colleges in the province got underway at the National Institute of Public Administration on Monday.

In all, 300 newly-appointed college teachers would be provided with intensive training in teaching in phases. The first batch of about 70 lecturers, including 23 females, would be completing their training under the aegis of the provincial education department and NIPA, by July 20.

The provincial coordinator for Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Wing, Dr Mehboob Ali Shaikh, said that this was for the first time that the provincial education department had organized any training courses for college teachers at such a level.

He said that imparting training in teaching was the responsibility of the bureau, but in the absence of the faculty and for the intensive training of college teachers at the bureau, the department decided to hand over the task to NIPA.

He informed the participants of the course and college principals present on the occasion that the government had allocated a sum of Rs2.88 million for the training of lecturers. He said that the specialized course aimed at improving the general skills of delivering lecturers, operating computers and enhance English language of the participants to prepare them for assuming higher responsibilities.

He observed that in a situation when the people in the rural areas were not bestowed with pure and hygienic water to drink, it was a bold initiative on the part of government to put to training the new college teachers. “You are highly educated, respected and responsible people of the society and as such you must take the training seriously,” he urged the participants, hoping that they should show interest in the most demanding training programme, which would not only help enhance their quantum of knowledge, but also enable them to learn the methodology to face modern-day students, already loaded with information and techniques, in the classroom.

The chief instructor at NIPA, Niaz Ahmed Siddiki, said that efforts should be made to learn from past experiences. But at the same time, there should be no binding to strict ways, to old trends, views and ideas as these adversely affects the process of innovation, creativity and growth.

Talking about the importance of training, he said that it required unlearning many things acquired wrongly. He stressed for developing professional attitudes among the teachers and hoped that they would enjoy the blend of theory and practice attempted in the contents and methodology of the course.

The two senior instructors of NIPA, Mir Jawed Iqbal and Kamran Lakhani, also spoke on the occasion.

Later the lecturers were informed about the training methodology,which would emphasise on teaching methodology, information technology, English speaking and issues relating to subject teaching by the faculty members and the eminent guest speakers from these fields of specialization.

For a brain storming exercise participants would also be involved in syndicate exercises.