HEC to set up self access centre at University of Malakand

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the University of Malakand (UoM) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday for establishing the first Self Access Centre (SAC) under the English Language Teaching Reforms Project (ELTR) Phase-II. The MoU was signed by HEC Executive Director Dr Sohail Naqvi and UoM Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Rasul Jan.
As much as Rs 1.5 million has been given to the university to establish the SAC at its English Department. The SAC will facilitate the faculty at UoM and serve as a hub for the English faculty of KPK. The centre will facilitate teacher training, especially in the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Internet Mediated Language Learning (IML). It will enable the teachers to update their knowledge about the latest trends in language learning and teaching. Under ELTR(Phase-I), SACs were established at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Islamabad and Bahauddin Zakriya University (BZU), Multan.
The ELTR (Phase-II) is more focused towards achievement of its goals to facilitate English language and literature faculty across Pakistan. Dr Naqvi said that incorporating technology in the regular learning process was imperative and these centres would accelerate teaching as well as the learning process. He added that HEC was giving special attention to improve the level of English language teaching in the universities and for this purpose, special courses had been designed for training English teachers.