PILOTING OF ADE/B.ED DEGREE PROGRAMS

Summer workshops for teachers concluded

Summer workshops for 80 senior faculty members and subject specialists from various educational institutions concluded here on Sunday. They were oriented and prepared to implement piloting of the Associate Degree in Education/B.Ed. (Hons.) degree programs in six universities and ten Government Colleges of Elementary Teachers (GCETs) in the country.

One of the purposes of arranging these workshops for faculty members of institutions piloting the new degree program was to guide the participants on implementation of the new degree and to create a professional team that feels valued and respected for launching it. The workshops also aimed to empower the participants to conduct the first phase of the ADE/B.Ed. (Hons.) elementary program to be launched by September 2010.

Different interactive activities were designed to enable teachers to understand how this degree program will be implemented in their institutions and what kind of activities they can initiate to make it less lecture-based and theoretical and more interactive and practical. Faculty members of universities and colleges shared the teaching techniques that they have adopted in their respective institutions.

The provincial governments are introducing ADE as a part of standard teacher training degree supported by Pre-Service Teacher Education Program (Pre-STEP), a USAID-funded US$ 75 million program working in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to improve the quality of basic education in Pakistan by strengthening teachers’ education and teaching skills.

Six public universities across the country will also offer B.Ed. (Hons.) elementary education from September. This has been made possible by the National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) of the HEC in tandem with efforts made by members of the Provincial Steering and Advisory Committees.

The new degrees will run simultaneously in Pre-STEP partner universities and colleges. The first part of the degree—the two-year ADE will be implemented in the colleges and upon completion of this degree, students will have the option to either start teaching or continue to complete the four-year B.Ed. (Hons) from the universities that awarded them with the ADE degree.

The program directly impacts new as well as practicing teachers by helping them gain revised and upgraded teacher qualifications. Pre-STEP collaboratively builds upon the existing structures and programs in Pakistan and supports 15 universities and 75 teacher colleges as instruments for change of academic standards in teacher education.