Punjab government and British Council celebrates first anniversary of PEELI

Lahore: Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashud Ahmad Khan has said that Punjab government has furthered all projects according to road map with the cooperation of international institutions for promotion of education and all targets have been achieved on time in this regard. According to a recent survey, the number of children out of school has been decreased substantially. He stressed the need of creating awareness among the teachers and students through scientific method according to aptitude of the children for adopting English as a medium of instruction after class three in the educational system of the province for meeting the demands of global village so that Pakistani nation could benefit from modern technology.

He said this while addressing a function of completion of one year of a 5-year project of Punjab Education and English Language Initiative (PEELI) started last year with the collaboration of British Council and Directorate of Staff Development Punjab today. Chief Executive Officer of British Council Martin Davidson, Country Director Peter Upton, Area Director British Council Lahore Kevin McLavin, Director Programme Tony Jones and Director PEELI Project Tony Fisher also addressed on the occasion whereas member PEELI team Barbra Payne replying to the questions of Mrs. Baila Raza Jamil, Dr. Tania Saeed and Dr. Waseem Anwar during a technical session also explained steps taken under PEELI project so far.

Rana Mashud Ahmad Khan said that Punjab government wants not to take any additional duties from teachers except teaching, therefore, teachers should pay attention to the teaching so that education standard of government schools could be improved. He said that English Language has become a “Life Skill” in the world. He said that capacity building of teachers is essential for the development and prosperity of the country so that they could provide quality education to their students.

Rana Mashud expressed his satisfaction that under PEELI Project, training has been imparted to 16 thousand primary teachers whereas training of teaching in English language is being provided to 64 thousand elementary school teachers.

Similarly, training in secondary English language teaching has been provided to 1240 newly recruited teachers in 22 districts of Punjab so far. Four hundred master trainers are providing training to primary school teachers in various districts of the province and 86280 teachers are teaching English, Mathematics and Science subjects to 31 lakh, 28 thousand students according to new techniques after getting training under PEELI Project.

Education Minister told that Punjab government has provided pre-service training to one lakh teachers in Directorate of Staff Development. It is a good omen that private schools are also approaching DSD for training of their teachers, he added.