By Hira Nafees Shah
Organizers and participants of the “Teachers, Our Friends” workshop
Javed Ayub set off on an arduous journey on the morning of February 3rd. During the next three days, he would tread through six feet snowfall in Neelum District and take an assortment of transport, before reaching his destination city- Mirpur in Azad Kashmir.
Ayub had set up a school in his area, when he realized that the percentage of female literacy there was tragically low. He recruited a board of directors, reached out to local donors and steadily worked towards changing people’s mindsets by encouraging them to let their daughters study.
Part of this transformation involved introducing the children in his school to new teaching methodologies, to bring Neelum district to the 21st century.
With this motive in mind, the private school owner made a trip to Mirpur to take part in a teacher-training workshop “Teachers, Our Friends,” organized by Pakistani Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) Alumna Jamshaid Naqvi. The four day event brought together 21 participants including teachers, non-profit workers and educationists from 10 districts of Azad Kashmir, and was funded by an Alumni Small Grant from the Pakistan-U.S Alumni Network.
Naqvi has been affiliated with the education sector in Azad Kashmir in various capacities, for a distinguished career spanning more than 30 years. She retired as Divisional Director Schools last year, but did not want to rest on her laurels.
Pakistani Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) Alumna Jamshaid Naqvi
“I wanted to bring a change to the far-flung areas of Azad Kashmir and enable the younger generation to interact with the senior professors, so that both of them could learn from each other and acquire new strategies in teaching,” she said.
A number of sessions took place during the workshop including an overview of formal and informal educational systems in Pakistan, class management and how to improve communication skills of the students. Role playing exercises demonstrated how to eliminate favoritism in the classroom and how teachers can use interactive techniques to make topics interesting, to hold the attention of the students.
One of the techniques focused on how to use debate to foster learning. During a role play exercise, the participants organized a mock debate on the merits and pitfalls of democracy that taught the attendees how to use debate to foster teamwork and collaboration.
For a participant Naumana Isamdad, the workshop was a learning experience.
“The Training of Trainers session provided us a platform to practically implement different teaching strategies, and also made our concepts clearer,” she said.
Isamdad has two graduate degrees and is working towards a third, and especially came from Bagh district to attend the training. She hoped that the initiative would pave the way to improve the educational system in Azad Kashmir.
Participants interacting during a group assignment at the workshop
Sabir Hussain Awan was another participant at the session with a twenty-four-years teaching experience. He appreciated how the workshop had brought together people from across the state of Azad Kashmir.
“I didn’t have any friends in Mirpur before, but now through this workshop, I have been able to develop linkages with teachers from every district,” said Awan.
Many of the participants face extraordinary challenges in the areas where they worked, and the workshop provided a great opportunity to learn from their counterparts in other districts and brainstorm new solutions to problems.
Syed Shabbir Hussain Gilani– a primary school teacher from Haveli Kahutta district—provided one such example. His school is located near the Line of Control between Pakistan and India and he was one of the only two lecturers teaching there.
“I know I will be able to implement many teaching strategies that I learned in Mirpur,” said Gilani, after attending the event.
For the female participants who outnumbered their male counterparts, the most important aspect about the event was the opportunity for women’s empowerment.
“Some areas of Azad Kashmir are backward and women can play a key role in their development,” said Daboor Sultana, a software engineering student at the workshop. “For example in Mirpur, most men go abroad to work and women stay home and take care of their families, so educated mothers can really create a difference.”
Female participants during an energizer at the workshop
They also had high praise for Naqvi’s energy and willingness to give her time and expertise to leading the workshop, despite being retired.
The PELI alumna has high hopes that the participants will replicate the training in their own districts, to make the project self-sustaining.
“I received from the state all my life and now I am involved in giving back,” said Naqvi. “The Pakistan-U.S Alumni Network provided me a platform which is not easily available, and I am really grateful to be given an opportunity to train other teachers.”
For more on the “Teachers, Our Friends” project, visit:
