After a gruelling one month process, the Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) concluded its Annual Teacher Training (ATT) cycle on Saturday (September 1) in Karachi. Almost 400 participants across Pakistan were reached through the efforts of the facilitators, and saw the AKU-EB trainers receive praise for their thoroughness and innovative training methods. Trainings began in the Sukkur region of Sindh from July 29, before progressing on to Chenab Nagar in Punjab, continuing to the Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral regions in the North, and finally concluding in Karachi. In some cases, entire days were spent travelling over rough terrain by trainers visiting these regions.

Two varieties of trainings were offered during this period: General Trainings focused on features of the revised curriculum along with techniques for planning classes effectively, and were thus a mainstay in most sessions. Subject-specific trainings, on the other hand, were offered in each area on the basis of a need analysis exercise that took the performance of schools in each region during this year’s April/May 2018 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examinations into account.

These trainings were conducted as part of a joint effort by the Teacher Support and Curriculum & Examination Development departments over the entire month of August, saw AKU-EB staff travel across Pakistan in order to deliver trainings to affiliated schools in each region.

Specialist, Teacher Support, Shehnaz Akhter, remarked that the experience allowed her to appreciate the immense diversity present amongst Pakistan’s teachers. “Their profession and passion is the same but they differ from one another on the basis of ethnicity and which province they reside in,” she said. “AKU-EB is able to connect them all together, and bring them onto a single platform regardless of their circumstances.”

For instance, one activity during General Trainings was to ask teachers to reconstruct subject-specific concept maps out of fragments of a greater whole. This encouraged teachers to, quite literally, deconstruct the basis for the subject that they taught and appreciate the necessity of concept maps as part of the classroom process. Another activity challenged participants to transfer water from one bottle to the other with their eyes closed, thus necessitating that participates come up with innovative ideas on how to overcome this hurdle. This activity was also meant to symbolise the danger of taking action without proper planning and guidance, thus emphasising the necessity of proper classroom planning.

Shuaib Sultan, a Mathematics teacher from the Aga Khan School, Ovirk, Chitral, stated that he appreciated the organisation of the trainings and that he would strive to incorporate "daily life experiences into different mathematical concepts" for his classes in the future. Anila Kamran a Social Studies and Pakistan Studies teacher from Korangi Academy, Karachi, wrote of her experience: "The workshop was very purposeful and interactive. I hope to apply these techniques to my classroom and further develop the interest of my students in these respective subjects."

Manager, Teacher Support, Ali Bijani, stated that this period had been a wonderful experience: "It provided us with the opportunity to get to know about the challenges faced by an important portion of our stakeholders," he said. "This further allows us to develop more efficient and innovative workshops as per their needs."

Teacher Support Conducts Annual Teacher Training Cycle