Aimed at keeping university teachers abreast with current trends, a professional development workshop for faculty members of Balochistan Universities started on Monday at the Faculty Development Academy of Comsats Institute of Information Technology Islamabad. The workshop is being organized by Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences (IUCPSS) and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in support with National Testing Service (NTS-Pakistan) Pakistan and government of Balochistan.
The main objectives of this master trainer workshop include keeping the university teachers abreast with current trends in knowledge disseminating in areas such as curriculum development, assessment and evaluation, microteaching and research methodology, academic writing, classroom management, communication and presentation skills. The workshop will continue till September. About 22 faculty members belonging to six universities of Balochistan are attending the workshop.
In his message for the participants on commencement of this workshop, Chief Minister of Balochistan, Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch, on behalf of coalition government and people of Balochistan, extended thank to organizers.
“Pre-service and in-service training workshops are very essential for the capacity building and professional grooming of university faculty. In addition, in this age of information and communication technology skill development of teachers is vital”, said the statement.
Speaking on the occasion, Advisor on Education to Chief Minister Balochistan, Sardar Muhammad Raza Barrech appreciated the efforts of the organizers for promoting higher education in Balochistan, he said that such steps would be greatly helpful for improving quality of teaching and research in the higher education sector of the province. He believed that faculty of the province would benefit from these initiatives and would share the knowledge. He further said that services and contribution of NTS for administering tests in far flung areas of Balochistan were really commendable which helped government of Balochistan a lot in merit based appointments in education and health sectors of the province. National Coordinator Inter University Consortium, Muhammad Murtaza Noor shared the objectives and rationale of the workshop.
Chairman Inter University Consortium and Vice Chancellor University of Haripur Dr. Nasser Ali Khan underlined the importance of continuous faculty development programs especially for the universities situated in far flung areas of the country.
Rector CIIT Islamabad, Dr. S.M Junaid Zaidi assured that they would continue to support the initiatives aiming at strengthening higher education in Balochistan. He highlighted various programs and efforts for promoting quality research and teaching in higher education sector of Pakistan.
