Teachers urged to upgrade knowledge

LAHORE: Teachers must focus on the conceptual learning of the students and should discourage rote memorisation which erodes the critical ability and productivity of education system.

This was said by Provincial Minister for Higher Education Syed Raza Ali Gilani while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the first batch of new college teachers under PHEC's Induction Training of College Teachers programme, according to a press release issued Monday.

The ceremony which held at Faculty Development Academy was also attended by PHEC Chairperson Prof Dr Mohammad Nizamuddin, UoE Vice-Chancellor Prof Rauf-e-Azam, Additional Secretary Muhammad Tanvir Jabbar, and Academic Committee for Training of PHEC.

Emphasising the need for teacher training Raza Gilani said the modern trends of learning at the global level were rapidly changing, our teacher must get their knowledge and skills up to date matching the global trends. “We need to enable our teachers to effectively share the knowledge and skills with the students in our classrooms, to bring students to their own level by their knowledge, skill and competence. For this we have to change our system; there is a dire need to teach the teachers” the minister said. “At Faculty Development Academy, we have the best resource person to train you for this 12 days intensive training programme” he added.

Talking about restoring the trust of students and parents on the public colleges, the minister said that we were to understand the learning needs of our students; create their interest towards learning; and handle them with respect, love and politeness. This would bring the students to public colleges and help them in conceptual learning.

Speaking about the BS 4-year programme run by selected public sector colleges of Punjab, the minister said the programme is being extended after a thorough evaluation “By 2020, we are planning to introduce BS 4-year programme in 736 public sector colleges of Punjab” he said. Trusting upon the newly-inducted lecturers, the minister said “we rely on you for the success of this programme; you have the experience of that semester system; you have up-to-date knowledge, and you have a devotion” he maintained.

The minister said that total 3,271 lecturers have been inducted this year, the majority of them are women “we are encouraging females to be the part of college faculty” he said. “To improve the college-student ratio, we will recruit around 4,000 more college teachers in the year to come” he added, ”we have built 26 new colleges in the province as well” he added.

He said that a 12-day training programme will be monitored and evaluated and there would be no compromise on the quality. “We have devised a proper mechanism; this training and the future ones, have been linked with the regularisation, promotion, scholarship, and transfer posting of the faculty members, only those who will perform better will reap the benefits” he added.

The minister maintained that the commerce colleges of the province have also come under the administrative ambit of HED, “we will develop the structure, make up missing facilities, and work on capacity building of those colleges” he added.

Welcoming the college teachers at Faculty Development Academy, Chairperson PHEC Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin said that a 12-day training programme is designed to orient the newly-inducted college lecturers with new teaching methodologies, class management skills and service rules, regulations and process. “You are the pioneer of this training programme; we are going to make you know that your role is more than a teacher, you people are the active members of higher education department to meet its vision of quality higher education,” said Dr Nizam.

He emphasised that college teachers should adopt interactive learning approach rather than lecture the students “you should make your classrooms more interactive, inclusive and discussion oriented, should encourage a two-day learning to boost the critical learning abilities of students” Dr Nizam added. “Faculty Development Academy of PHEC practice this innovative and interactive approach; we are providing our teachers with full residential facilities so that they may interact with each other, know themselves, and share their knowledge and skills” he maintained. Dr Nizam appreciated the Higher Education Department, the Punjab government for making the induction training as pre-condition for promotion/regularisation.

Additional Secretary HED, Muhammad Tanveer Jabbar, at this eve, said “There were not proper induction training of the college teachers before, which was begetting the issues of quality and competency of teaching and teachers; establishment of Faculty Development Academy with the collaboration of PHEC has provided a proper training institute for teacher training.