i shared my articles with you on this wesite. Are you going to give them proper shape to share with other colleagues also?

Mazhar Khetran

January 11, 2010 Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA) written a letter to the Secretary Education Balochistan Quetta with the subject “Nomination for Plymouth State University 4 Week Training Program July, 2010” for the Pakistan Educational Leadership Project. This program consists of a four week Plymouth State University(PSU) Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) and will be conducted in July, 2010 and follow on activities and outcomes in Pakistan.

This program is funded by the U.S Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs(ECA). Whilst Plymouth State University is the grant awardee, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aaghai and the Institute for Professional Learning (IPL) provide support in Pakistan.

“Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute” Program comprises of two phases of work: 1) a four week out of country component and 2) an in-country component called the Master Action Plan (MAPs) implementation phase, upon their return.
My selection for four week training was made through a long process starting from selection in districts to a test and interview by the ITA Team in coordination with Government of Balochistan Education Department. I visited USA. Following are the positive outcomes of PELI 2010:

• The perception that Americans are self-centered people who always keep their own interest view while extending helping hand to the developing countries but the visit and my stay in USA taught me that my perception was based on misunderstandings and misgivings. The USA really wants to help the developing nations to come out their shallow thinking, become the members of global family, gain confidence and try to stand on their own feet. This is the way which can relieve them of dependence and gain a real status in the international family.

• We are accustomed of a teacher-centered instruction in the classroom where the student is a silent listener and recipient. During my classroom activities in Plymouth State University, I learnt that the student is focus and he is master of the entire game. He should not be a recipient but the teacher should respect what he demands to learn. This has helped me to change my instructional perception, my attitude towards students and to revisit my style of teaching. I have also learnt team-teaching technique and developed belief that teacher cannot alone accomplish what he plans. He has to take benefit of the experience, knowledge and talent of his colleagues. This is what I am advocating for a change in the attitude of my co-workers.

• Though I knew the importance of water in the life but I never appreciated the problem which will be experienced in the near future. The scarcity of water is going to be a big problem for Pakistan as the rains are scanting, water is depleting and the agriculture and horticulture is being affected badly. The forestry is disappearing and all this is affecting the weather in Pakistan particularly in Balochistan. I have now learnt through my professors in PSU that the water should be used with the care. The new reservoirs should be developed and the existing resources may be so treated that their perennial availability becomes possible. I have now started thinking that Kashmir is not a real cause of conflict between Pakistan and India but water is the bigger cause which is showing itself day by day, therefore, the teachers should teach the students the importance of water and prepare them for future.

• The entire visit of USA was a new and very useful experience for me. My clearance from FBI to classroom interaction, the teaching techniques, the knowledge about water and watershed, exchange of knowledge and experiences with my colleagues, a dinner at Gaye Gold house, visit of aquarium, all were wonderful and would remain in my memory till long but visit of White House was novel for me. I thought that White House was a very huge building which is a world debarred for common person particularly for Pakistanis but when I was told that I will be visiting White House, it was really unbelievable for me in the background of my own country. I felt elevated when I entered the White House. I gauzed everything with wonder. I enjoyed each and every room and corner. I realized what a real democracy is. I realized that the house o president is the house of the voters. It is therefore, not an in-passable place.

The overall impact of PSU institutes was positive. It enhanced teaching skills, leadership among teachers and teacher educators and enabled teachers to believe in and practice borderless education to become teachers without boundaries.
From the year 2009, PSU in collaboration with ITA started follow-up activities after attending the Four-Week Training in PSU. Master Action Plan (MAP) developed during the Pakistan Education Leadership Institute (PELI), 2010 at Plymouth State University, entitled:
“KEEP THE PELI ALUMNI CONNECTED & SHARING RESOURCES” is being implemented now. The purpose of this MAP is to connect all the PSU PELI Alumni of all the provinces including AJK, FATA and Islamabad from 2004 to 2010, who has visited PSU through ITA.

The objectives of the MAP are to connect all the PELI Alumni 2004-2010, regional, national level with PSU, ITA and U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)and to share and up-date biographies, current assignments and portfolios, plans, progresses, issues encountered. Also share information of all PELI Alumni availability for exchange purpose at PELI Website and to take initiative for making this forum sustainable.

Now in the month of January, 2011 (Insha Allah) I am going to implement the MAP/re-union of all PELI Alumni 2005, 2009 and 2010 of Balochistan Province, it is therefore requested from all the PELI Alumni 2005, 2009 and 2010 that following participation/activity should be presented from your side at the time of re-union namely “CONNECTING THE EFFORTS” at Quetta city:

 After visiting PSU, what change/improvement of education in your institute have been tried/implemented by you?

 Have you re-viewed your teaching method?

 How your MAP is/was different from Others?

 Have you faced challenges (resistance from any side, level of difficulty, lack of enthusiasm in people for change to complete your MAP/task assigned to you (if any) or to change/re-view your teaching method in your institute as a teacher or as an administrator after visiting PSU. I am going to provide a forum for sharing your experiences/achievements, challenges before and after coming from the PSU so that other people using the MAP or visiting PSU are also made aware. Also add what strategies you used to cope with the challenges.

 Please share with us other work that you are doing that is outside the scope of your job description, for example if you have offered any trainings, developed course outlines for your institutions, if you have been in the media (print or electronic), or if the beneficiaries of your MAP implementation have taken your work forward in their lives.

 Some inspirational/interesting statements, if any

 Other thoughts/comments that you like to share.

(Mazhar Khetran)
PSU PELI Alumni 2010 Quetta, Balochistan
mazharkhetran@yahoo.com
mykhetran@gmail.com
+923337833355
 

PREPARATORY PHASE

IMPLEMENTATIONPHASE

CONNECTING THE EFFORTS—PROGRESS

Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) is a program which focuses on the sharing of worldwide experiences being made or promotion of innovative ideas in quality of education. The program is funded by U.S Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and hosted by Plymouth State University (PSU) USA. Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aaghai (ITA) and the Institute for Professional Learning (IPL) provide support in Pakistan. Besides, other activities, the program seeks to provide a platform to the members-alumni to present their ideas, their work maps and the outcomes. Under this program, Pakistani teachers/educators are provided an opportunity to participate in 4 week training at Plymouth State University. The Pakistani teachers have been taking benefit of this program since 2004 and so far 160 teachers have participated in the program. The first cohort consisting of 5 teachers of Balochistan had proceeded to USA to attend the training at PSU. The last cohort had had similar experiences during the year 2010 and it consisted of 4 female and 3 male members. All of the participating teachers were selected on competitive basis and incidentally all were working in the rural Balochistan.
The workshop at Plymouth State University is an effort to expose the teachers to latest teaching techniques, workplaces and providing an opportunity to learn how the education system works in USA. The object behind the program is to bring all the teachers of particularly developing countries at a par with their counterparts in USA. Therefore, this program helps creating a universal thinking among the teachers.
Besides academic work, the participants are encouraged and helped to develop their programs which they are supposed to implement in their own countries and institutions of their work. I also participated in the training held during 2010 and like my colleagues, developed a Master Action Plan(MAP) at Plymouth State University USA. My program focused on “CONNECTING THE EFFORTS” of my colleagues which they are doing after their return from PSU. The objective of my Master Action Plan is to keep everyone aware of what is being done, what kind of hindrances and problems are faced and what are the outcomes of the efforts. Such a program, I think will help my colleagues in making use of good practices in their classrooms and escaping the bottlenecks experienced by others.
It was my luck that when I was working for implementation of Master Action Plan, Madam Baela Raza Jamil, Director Programs ITA/IPL arrived at Quetta. I had a meeting with her and discussed my MAP. Madam Baela was on a mission to follow-up the post Plymouth State University visit of alumni. She held a meeting with the Secretary Education, Balochistan on 15th October, 2010. The meeting was focused to orientate the Secretary Education on the objectives of Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) program and its possible outcomes. She also discussed the MAPs, their implementation and requested the Secretary Education Balochistan to extend cooperation to the alumni to carry out their Master Action Plans in their relevant schools/institutions. The worthy Secretary Education Balochistan Mr.Saqib Aziz took the initiative of calling all alumni 2010 to Quetta to understand their work with respect to MAPs and their professional caliber. All but one out of 7, 2010 alums reached the meeting venue on October 15, 2010. He asked them detailed questions about their existing work and MAPs-how they are to be implemented. He suggested that for good MAPs that can be eligible for 15 Graduate Credit Hours being generously offered in the program, they must be:
• Measureable and well thought through
• Have a pre and post evidence with good documentation
• Be useful for the education sector and
• Replicable – Scalable
He looked at the “Agreements” and suggested that these are fine that the disbursement should be to the individual PSU PELI Alumni 2010 but with copies of cheques sent to them to be shared with the institution head and the Secretary Education.
My Master Action Plan needed a systematic process which I divided into two phases:
In first phase, I communicated with my group alumni who were spread over districts Pishin, Quetta, Ziarat, Lasbella, Mastung, Turbat and Washuk. Their places of posting were not known to me and I had a difficulty in reaching them but with the help of a list provided by my colleague Ms. Raheela Akram, I got their places of posting and served them a template through emails and telephones which required detailed information regarding their MAPs. Fortunately, the response was encouraging. Almost all the alumni responded and shared with me their MAPs, the bottlenecks they experienced and possible outcomes.
The phase-II was my planning to bring all the alumni at one place from where they may share their work with each other and other interested teachers. I requested them to send me their MAPs outlines. They favoured me and sent me what I needed. I gave these MAPs a presentable shape and prepared charts for display.
I then invited all the alumni to Quetta to attend a conference. With their consensus January 17, 2011 was fixed as a date for the conference. I shared my plan with ITA. Miss. Riffat Aysha helped me a lot in finalization of my plan. The ITA sanctioned an amount of Rs.22680/- for implementation of MAP. This amount relaxed of my financial difficulties.
I approached a large number of the stakeholders and requested them to participate in the conference. All of them promised to be present on the occasion. I selected the auditorium of Boy Scouts Headquarter, Halli Road Quetta for the re-union. It was decorated with MAPs, charts and pictures one day before the conference was held. I also displayed the data showing the alumni who had taken benefit of the opportunity since 2004.
The conference was held on January 17, 2011 which started at 2:00 pm. Though all the invitees could not participate still it was good gathering of the people representing various shades of the society.
The conference started with recitation from the Holy Quran. Haji Ghaffran, Deputy District Officer Education, Zarghoon Town was chairperson in the conference. After registration all the participants took their seats. I served a template among the participants to certain some information on best practices and feedback.
I opened the conference with my address in which I shared all my experiences which I had had during my visit to Plymouth State University. I also shared the objectives of the conference and expressed my gratitude to the Secretary Education Balochistan who had extended cooperation, the participants who arrived and spared their precious time to participate in the conference. I also expressed my thankfulness to ITA who had arranged the program and of course to the Plymouth State University who hosted the workshop in USA.
All the alumni came to the stage one by one and shared their plans with the participants. There was a detailed discussion of each presentation. All the alumni felt it a good opportunity of getting together and sharing their views and MAPs with each other.
Mohtarma Faiza Mir, Lecture, I.R Department, University of Balochistan and General Secretary, U.S State Alumni Association of Balochistan also participated in the conference. She was very happy to see the alumni of PSU under one roof and sharing their experiences. She said that such reunions are very much needed and they can help the teachers to speak their heart, to share their ideas and experiences and thus providing a foundation for quality education. She said that Mr. Mazhar (myself) had narrated the events of PSU visit so beautifully that she felt as if she was sitting in USA. Miss Faiza Mir narrated her experiences in USA and she said that she has learnt a lot formally and informally. She also said that she is also planning to hold a reunion of the alumni.
Miss Masooma Ismail of Government Girls School Islamabad, Quetta, expressing her feelings remembered that the alumni had to work hard for, sometimes for twelve hours a day to accomplish their assignments in PSU. She said that the environment was so conducive that the participants did not lose their interest inspite of long hours of working.
Expressing her experiences, Miss Noshaba Mumtaz of Government Girls High School, Ziarat said that if the teacher is committed and innovative, she/he can create similar learning environment in her/his classroom here in Pakistan as it was in PSU. She said that I have changed my attitude in the classroom. Now in my classroom, I act as facilitator and the students are learners. I no more teach them. I am now their servant and they are my masters. After my return from PSU, I feel that the students should be centre of all activities and the teachers should help and guide the students to learn. No rote memorization, no remembering drills, all learning, learning and learning.
Mr. Nawab Khan from Basima District Washuk-a far of place discussed his MAP and told the participants about the importance of his MAP “Save The Houbara”. Mr. Bakhtiar Ahmed of High School, Kan Depot District Ziarat told the participants that the students had expressed and demonstrated a great interest in the way he had started teaching after his return from PSU. Miss Zakia Ishaq also told about her MAP.
Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute (PELI) has provided the alumni, particularly the alumni of Balochistan to revisit their teaching practices and bring change in them so that the teaching in the classroom does not aim simply at enhancing the pass-percentage in the examination because such an attitude and thinking supplies the society a low quality human material. It results in retarding the pace of development and growth. The USA has made advancements, I think, because it has introduced activity-based, experiment-oriented and problem-solving methods of teaching. I have seen classrooms in USA where the students think experiment and generalize the results and then use these results for their further experiments. The teachers are helping and guiding. There is no concept of corporal punishment and exclusive education is encouraged. There is no distinguishing of color and creed, no priority to any ethnic group or belief. I think all these good qualities of education should be adopted in our classrooms. We should stop cursing others and try to adopt good practices from anywhere we get. The true Islam also teaches that we should take benefit of universal wisdom because it is the property of human-being and not any particular nation or country. This is what I have learnt through my visit. I recommend that many more teachers should be afforded opportunity to visit PSU and see by themselves what an open society is, what democracy is, and what liberalism is. Such visit will surely widen the mental horizon of the visitors.

(Mazhar Khetran)
PSU PELI Alumni 2010
Quetta, Balochistan
mazharkhetran@yahoo.com
mykhetran@gmail.com
+923337833355