ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday said that the government is ready to face the challenge of bringing out of school children to the educational institutions.
He was addressing a ceremony organized here in honour of best teachers on the eve of World Teachers’ Day by the Ministry of Federal Education and USAID, a U.S. Mission to Pakistan for the improvements the teachers have made inside their classrooms. As many as 28 educators from across Pakistan were honored with “Best Teacher Awards” during the ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister lauded the efforts of the thousands of early grade reading teachers who play an integral role in improving the overall quality of primary education in the country. He commended the efforts of USAID in Pakistan for the teachers training and for the promotion of education. He also underlined the need for the improvement of quality education and equity in the education system.
Speaking for U.S. Mission Pakistan, US AID Mission Director Jerry Bisson noted that the program enhanced more than just the students’ ability to read. “When we improve the quality of education and broaden access to it, we improve many other aspects of students’ and the nation’s well-being,” he stated.
The teachers implemented new methodologies of teaching reading to students and gauging how well their students were progressing, with an aim toward improving literacy in Pakistan.
The Best Teacher Award recipients were nominated by their provincial education departments based on their participation in professional development workshops, the degree to which they improved their teaching methods in their classrooms, and, most importantly, on their students’ ability to achieve.
The U.S. Government-funded Pakistan Reading Project has already trained over 23,600 public school teachers, who, in turn, have used the techniques learned to teach reading to over 1.3 million first and second-grade students.
