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Where we do it > Pakistan - Abdul Qayyum

Abdul Qayyum, ALI Institute Teacher training in Pakistan

In Pakistan only 7% of students qualify as being literate with just 18% competent in numeracy. One of the main reasons for this is due to the outdated teaching methodology that is based on rote learning and ‘chalk and talk’ methods.

One of VSO’s partners in Pakistan working to change this is the Ali Institute of Education (AIE). AIE provides pre- and in-service training for primary teachers in Punjab state. Its pre-service college is based in Lahore and provides degree level qualifications for teachers while its 10 Training and Resource Centres (TARCs) in the cities of Punjab provide in-service training.

Each TARC employs two or three teacher trainers who provide onsite training to un-qualified teachers in rural government primary schools, where the most disadvantaged children are educated. The trainers also try to improve relationships between parents and teachers and encourage the local community to play a more active role in the life of the school.

VSO volunteers like Abdul Qayyum, 66, work with TARC to help the teacher trainers to develop appropriate and motivational training, to monitor and evaluate teachers performance, and to increase the staff’s own confidence and capacity.

Abdul has been a primary teacher for 40 years, after coming to the UK from Pakistan. “I decided to take early retirement, and didn’t want to sit at home doing nothing. I’m not a gardener, so I thought ‘I’ll do VSO’! My preference was Thailand or China because I wanted to experience another culture but I was open to the idea of coming back to Pakistan. For my entire teaching career I’ve taught children, I’ve never dealt with adults so it was a challenge for me, and I was quite nervous initially.

“When I started my objective was to introduce change very, very gradually. The way teachers were being trained meant there was no interaction between teachers and students; it was just chalk and talk. So we introduced activities and they loved it. They were all open to it, they’ve got new ideas, and they wanted to learn.”

Bushra Naz is the senior professional development teacher in charge of the TARC at Sheikhupura: “We had no plan produced for the in-service training of teachers. Volunteers came and they visited our schools and they attended the training. They helped us prepare all the modules for training and gave us feedback on how to manage it. It’s been a major contribution to how we work.

“I’ve changed now and I give a lot of changes to my teachers, so it is a permanent change. I’ve learnt not just teaching methodology, but a lot of things: attitudes, how to deal with others, how to deal with teachers. It’s a really good change.”

Muhammad Naeem Hijazi is one teacher who has benefited from the new training the TARC is providing “Most people in Pakistan teach traditionally. They don’t know about activities, so they use only traditional methods, they are sitting on a chair in front of the class talking to them from the chair. It’s meaningless. But now I have changed my teaching methods, I have introduced activities to my students and they take more interest, much more interest in education.”

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