4-Day Workshop organized for Capacity Building of Champions for Change (CFC) of Tharparkar, Pakistan
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ECOSF has been collaborating with the Thar Edcuation Alliance (TEA) for promotion and implementation of STEM Education through Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) - a la main a la pate methodology. Tharparkar is a desert area of Pakistan with meagre infrastructure and facilities. TEA has initiated various projects for promotion and improvement of educational and socio-economic conditions of the local masses of Tharparkar, especially the females. In this context, 50 young females were selected to be trained as activists, mobilisers and teachers for the promotion of education in the area.
In this regard, a 4-Day workshop was organized by TEA in collaboration of ECOSF for the capacity building of Champions for Change (CFC) from 20-23 August 2020 at Mithi City of Tharparkar District of Sindh, Pakistan focusing on importance of STEM Education and to enhance their skills so that they can enrich the educational landscape of Tharparkar, play a vital role in their local community to ensure the enrolment of girls education.
During the opening session, CEO of TEA Mr. Partab Shivani said that motive behind arranging this training is to glorify the abilities of CFCs and to connect them with the modern tactics and skills as they can work and contribute for their locals technically.
ECOSF arranged two female master trainers on IBSE, Ms. Saba Chachar as main trainer and Ms. Rabel Shaikh as co-trainer from Sukkur IBA University (SIBAU) Community Colleges to conduct the training on STEM Education through IBSE. It is pertinent to mention that both the female teachers were trained by ECOSF as Master Trainers in IBSE. Other trainers for digital media and education advocacy/policy were arranged by TEA.
During the STEM training, introduction of ECOSF and SIBAU was given by Ms. Saba Chachar. She further shared how the IBSE methodology was developed by La main a la pate Foundation of France; which is being implemented in more than 60 countries around the world including Pakistan. Subsequently, a session was held on the basics of Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE), especially focusing on inquiry and its types, and how inquiry stimulates learning with the help of interactive demonstrations and activities. Participant were quite enthusiastic and participated in discussions very actively. Teachers of that area shared their problems related to teaching science and admitted that with IBSE approach they can develop long term learning in students. Afterwards, various sessions consisting of different activities were performed by the participants in order to develop understanding of key inquiry skills such as; observing , questioning , hypothesizing, planning, investigating, interpreting and communicating.
On Fourth/Final day a complete class with IBSE approach was conducted and the participants designed and developed a climate change condition in a bottle by applying IBSE process.
Overall, the training provided an opportunity to share the best practices, lesson learned and to identify areas of improvement and develop the solutions for smooth implementation of project activities in meantime. The training was conducted with complete participatory IBSE approach and was considered good enough to motivate and enhance the capacities of all Champions for Change successfully. After training, the CFCs will play a role in the area for identifying the issues in education sector and discuss them with the concerned authorities and stakeholders for the betterment.