Serving the Community: 4-days workshop to enhance teachers’ skills

Department of Animal Sciences and Community Relations Initiative, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) jointly organized a four days workshop on teachers training “Laboratory Methods in Biology” with an aim to enhance the capacity of the science teachers at the college level. The activity was sponsored by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Science foundation.

One week intensive training workshop of teachers on laboratory methods concluded was basically a refresher course in laboratory methods for the faculty members involved in the teaching of Biology at BSc, BSc-Hons and MSc levels. Thirty five teachers and faculty members participated in this activity. The course participants represented 22 different educational institutions of Pakistan, fourteen federal colleges, six colleges/universities from Sindh and two colleges from KPK.

While addressing the concluding ceremony Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, Vice Chancellor QAU said that “Quaid-i-Azam University being the prime national university is rapidly enhancing its academic and research programs. QAU is not only committed to expanding its outreach programmes but also we feel the responsibility to strengthen our affiliated institutes and engaging our community.” He further elaborated that in order to achieve this objective, “QAU has decided to launch Community Relations Initiative (CRI) believing that University and the communities are essentially linked and the success of both is vital to the social and cultural development in the building of societies.” He said that effective community relations initiative can efficiently engage university’s different departments to ensure their active participation in a number of volunteering activities enabling students and faculty members to support local community groups as well as develop key skills under this initiative.

Dr. Sajid Malik, Associate Professor, Department of Animal Sciences (QAU), highlighted the importance of practical laboratory methods for the comprehension of theoretical concepts of science subjects. In Biology curriculum, though laboratory work is an integral part of teaching but unfortunately our teachers lack the necessary skills in this particular area. As either there is lack of facilities or the faculty members are themselves not trained to conduct the practical work. Realizing this deficiency, the Department of Animal Sciences and Community Relations Initiative, Quaid-i-Azam University decided to launch this teachers training program to facilitate the teachers in a highly customized, low budget laboratory set up. Dr. Irfan Z Qureshi, Chairman Department of Animal Sciences emphasized the importance and impact of laboratory demonstrations in theoretical teachings. He also appreciated the efforts of the organizers and resource persons who have helped in arranging this training workshop hoping that it would be a great learning experience for the course participants.