U.S. Assists Pakistan to Improve Education

Islamabad, December 08, 2009 - USAID Deputy Education Officer Katie Donohoe delivers remarks at the opening session of USAID-sponsored workshop to help develop recommendations to maintain higher standards for teacher quality.

Workshop Seeks New Avenues Toward Better Trained Teachers

December 8, 2009

Islamabad - Improving the quality of teacher education will make a lasting impact on the quality of education all across Pakistan, participants at a U.S-sponsored curriculum development workshop held this week agreed. The meeting chaired by Minister of State for Education Ghulam Farid Kathia, included education officials, in addition to representatives from Pakistan's principal teacher training institutions and advocacy groups. Over five days, stakeholders will develop recommendations to refine the teacher certification process.

The workshop is part of USAID's Pre-Service Teachers Education Program (Pre-STEP), a five-year, $75 million program that supports faculties of 15 higher education institutions in Pakistan to improve curricula and 75 government colleges. Pre-STEP also sponsors more than 100 Pakistani scholars to study toward post-graduate degrees in the United States, and sponsors working groups advocating improved teaching skills and teacher welfare.

"The entire education system in Pakistan will benefit from improved teacher education," said Katie Donohoe, Deputy Director of Education for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "This initiative will lead to greater numbers of better-trained teachers in Pakistani classrooms."

Participants will seek consensus among major teacher education partners, including curriculum officers in the Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Commission, and representatives of teacher training institutions on the content and structure of the Bachelor of Education honours curriculum, and how it should align with teacher education offered in the government colleges of elementary education.

"Seeing so many educators from across the country assures me that . . . training new teachers to be able to offer quality teaching in Pakistan's classrooms is critical to national development and the future growth of Pakistan," Minister Kathia said at the opening session. "This work will not be easy, nor can it be done by outsiders. This is our work, for our schools, our children and our future."