The fact is that education is not only for the children and it is equally important to teach teachers about the appropriate teaching methods so that they can shape and raise smart individuals.
education
The fact is that education is not only for the children and it is equally important to teach teachers about the appropriate teaching methods so that they can shape and raise smart individuals. Zakia Sarwar realised this need and worked in the education sector to make things better in Pakistan. She is known as the mother of SPELT (Society of Pakistani English Language Teachers), which is a professional forum for language educators since 1984. The good news is that recently, the 32nd SPELT International Conference 2016 was announced at a press conference in Karachi.
The 32nd Spelt Conference in Karachi was held from Oct 29 to 30th at the Habib University. However, in Islamabad, Lahore and Abbottabad it will be held simultaneously on 5th and 6th November 2016.
The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Expand your horizons in ELT’. Professor Adrian Tennant from UK, and Dr Dudley Reynolds from the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), USA are among the distinguished foreign speakers.
Professor Sarwar said that 2,000 teachers had been trained so far. “Governments had paid only lip service to education and defaulted on teacher education. SPELT has taught teachers to teach more effectively. Our slogan is: self-help and team work,” she informed.
Ameena Saiyid, managing director of Oxford University Press (Pakistan), and Dr Asif Aslam Farrukhi, associate professor at Habib University were present at the occasion. "In our country, out of a population of 60 million of school-going age children, 25 million are not going to school. Education is compulsory but there aren’t enough schools,” lamented Ameena.
“It had been determined that learning was easiest in the mother tongue at the beginners' level. Therefore, it has been decided to bring Urdu and Sindhi into the ambit of training,” she added.
Lubna Mohyuddin, a member of SPELT, shared, “We don't believe in commercializing education and training and that the organisation charges very nominal fees for training - Rs1,200 for members and Rs1,500 from non-members.”
After the conference, a question-answer session took place in which the role of private sector in education was highlighted. Most of the panel members were of the opinion that private sector had done lots for schooling and that the standard of education in government schools was well below the mark.