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A student at Mehra Camp school leads his class in a language lesson. Photo credit: Kaukab Jhumra Smith/USAID

Teachers Take Lessons Learned At Mehra Relief Camp Back To Villages

Islamabad - Twenty-eight teachers working at the three USAID sponsored schools at Mehra Relief Camp in the Allai Valley received valuable training that will help them as they return to their home villages. The teacher orientation course provided by USAID partner Save the Children emphasized the psycho-social needs of students traumatized by the earthquake and introduced teaching techniques and practical exercises to help them prepare students to adjust to new circumstances in their home villages.

The three-day course provided guidance for teachers while they were teaching at the camp. The USAID-funded program helped prepare teachers to apply new skills critical for supporting students as they adapt to life at home and in establishing schools that function well and enable students to learn.

Sara Lim, an educational expert from Save the Children, said that teachers participated in exercises that helped them first understand the traumatic effects the earthquake had on their own lives. This prepared them to then reach out to their students.

The teacher-training also introduced new teaching techniques – role-playing, visual aids and group learning – into teachers’ lesson plans. "Children understand better if you explain lessons with pictures," said teacher Islam-ur-Rehman, who teaches Urdu and English.

Another teacher, Khair-ul-Mukhtar who taught at a government school before moving to the camp, said he now includes group exercises in his lesson plans and makes sure to repeat information if a child does not understand the first time. He called the three-day teacher-training "fantastic."

The United States, through USAID, is providing more than $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pakistan over the next five years to improve education, health, governance and economic growth. In addition, the United States has pledged a total of $510 million in earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts to assist the people of Pakistan and to support Pakistani government relief and reconstruction efforts.