ASGHAR PERVAIZ GILL

Asghar Pervaiz Gill

Place and Province: Sheikhupura, Punjab

Profession: Working as “Academic Coordinator for Science” with Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan which is running 14 schools in different districts of Punjab.

My responsibilities in this organization include:

• To spend time in different schools especially in boarding schools and village schools and to work with  teachers to produce good results
• To develop the curriculum for Grades 1 to 10 in Presbyterian Education Board schools. To go through the curriculum defined by Ministry of Education in Pakistan and setting of Scheme of studies for grade 1 to 10 accordingly before the beginning of each academic year. This Scheme of studies includes the yearly plan, monthly break up and guidance for the weekly plan for each class.
• To provide necessary materials and resources to the teachers for effective teaching at secondary school level.
• To interview the teachers and give recommendations for their recruitment.
• Scheduled visits of all schools working under the management of Presbyterian Education Board and to observe different teachers teaching various subjects and to give guidance and help to the teachers to teach more effectively in different classes.
• To organize workshops and meetings of the  teachers of secondary classes and help them to improve their teaching methods and to give them guidance for effective lesson planning, proper use of  activities, time management, effective test preparation for evaluation etc

Family: I am married. My wife is a lecturer of Biology in a public college.

Personal Information: I am self motivated person. I love to work in a challenging environment. I have done masters in Chemistry from University of Punjab, Lahore and completed three years of teacher education to teach at secondary school level.

Goals for future:

1. To become a good master trainer who could address to the needs of  teachers and students of my community
2. To help the poor and rural students to get quality education
3. To impart positive thinking and love for peace and humanity among the students

Educational Institute: Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan      

The Presbyterian Education Board is a private, church-run educational organization which is registered as a not-for-profit organization in Pakistan and in USA. The history of Presbyterian Education Board dates back to the first educational work of the United Presbyterian Mission when E. H. Stevenson took over a primary school in Sialkot from a C.M.S. missionary in 1856. Currently, the Presbyterian Education Board is running thirteen schools, four boarding houses and a number of other projects.
VISION
The Presbyterian Education Board’s vision is to provide in an enduring way, high quality education responsive to the needs of the whole child in preparation for the needs and demands of the 21st century. The Presbyterian Education Board wishes to offer this education to children of all religious backgrounds, regardless of their ability to pay, who choose to come to Christian institutions – not to be converted, but to receive high quality education fully informed by Christian values.

MISSION
The Presbyterian Education Board’s mission is to provide high quality education that addresses the needs of all individuals; morally, physically, intellectually, socially and spiritually, so essential for each individual’s quality of life. The Presbyterian Education Board exists to provide the human and financial resources necessary for educating children in mind, body and spirit within an environment that embodies the core values of self-discipline, integrity, tolerance and respect for others, and fairness and justice in all of our dealings. The Presbyterian Education Board’s values all religious traditions while being rooted in its own Christian tradition. Christian students will be empowered and enabled to deepen their faith and their sense of community with one another. All students will be educated to have a spirit of service and a quality of character that will enable them to contribute to positive changes in society as citizen-leaders of their community, their church, their country and the world. They will be prepared to successfully compete as they go on in intermediate and higher education and as they prepare for the world of work.

GOALS

• To evolve the systems and strategies necessary to impart quality education in the schools.
• To assess current academic programs and suggest changes in response to changes in environment, society and culture
• To improve the overall results in the schools so that students can achieve good grades in the Matriculation Examinations and obtain places at good colleges.
• To enhance managerial and leadership skills.
• To inculcate the values of love, brotherhood and tolerance
• To bring awareness of child rights
• To include peacemaking efforts as part of the curriculum
• To build bridges between different communities and religious groups within Pakistani society
• To spread awareness of certain social challenges, such as sexual abuse and harassment
• To build society by educating females
• To build bridges through these schools between different nations and between East and West

The challenge of the day is to create an atmosphere of respect for other religions. Presbyterian Education Board schools are serving both Muslim and Christian communities. These schools are educating students, teachers and parents to respect those of other faiths. The Presbyterian Education Board also believes in working together with all community members, especially focusing on extending goodwill to Muslim brothers and sisters. Interfaith seminars are arranged by the Presbyterian Education Board. Participants from Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Hindu and Parsi communities express their views about the importance of interfaith harmony and solidarity.

The Presbyterian Education Board believes that the way forward for Pakistan is through education. Pakistan needs more educated young men and women with spiritual values. The Presbyterian Education Board is struggling hard to be an agent of change; to spread peace, love, unity, brotherhood and tolerance in society through its students.   

 

Institutions working under the management of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan
Schools
Kinnaird Academy High School for Girls, Lahore.
PEB Rainbow School for Special Education, Lahore (Currently closed due to unavailability of funds)
PEB School System, CGHS Kasur
PEB School System, CGHS Sangla Hill, Dist. Nankana Sahib
PEB School System, CGHS Martinpur, Dist. Nankana Sahib
PEB School System, CBHS Martinpur, Dist. Nankana Sahib
PEB School System, CGHS Sargodha
English Medium School Sargodha
PEB School System, CGHS Pasrur
PEB School System, Sialkot
CTI High School, Sialkot
Solomon Standard High School Rawalpindi
Lal Kurti Primary School Rawalpindi
Boarding Houses
Christian Girls Boarding House Sangla Hill
Christian Girls Boarding House Sargodha
Christian Girls Boarding House Pasrur
Christian Boys Boarding House Sialkot
Projects
SHE (Struggle Hope Empowerment)-project for better Pakistan
Child Friendly Spaces in flood affected areas of Pakistan
Adult Education Program
English Language Program
Vocational Training Centers
Vocational Training Center, Sangla Hill
Vocational Training Center, Martinpur

Students’ Profile  

The majority of schools cater for pupils aged between 5 and 16 years. Presbyterian Education Board’s main office is located in Lahore. More than 70% of the students in our schools are Muslim and less than 30 % are Christian. Our students belong to very poor families and they have limited opportunities to get education. Most of the students are from rural and remote areas, a few are from the urban areas, but still from low earning families.

Per child expense in Presbyterian Education Board schools is about Rs. 1400 per month (for non-boarding students), but students are paying on average a fee of Rs.400. The rest of the expenses are met by the scholarships which Presbyterian Education Board provides with the cooperation of international partners.

A video Introduction of Sangla Hill School

Needs of Institute

Some of the important needs of my institute are summarized below:

1. More scholarships for the students to take more admissions from those areas where there are no or very less opportunities to get education
2. Financial resources are required to complete the building project of Boys Schools at Sargodha
3. Financial resources are required for the girls taking post school education at Christian Girls Higher Secondary School Sangla Hill
4. More financial resources are required for continuous professional development of teaching staff of schools of PEB

Non Sibi

Some of the non sibi activities in my home country in which I am/was engaged in Pakistan include:

• Helping, guiding and motivating the young students of my village to continue with their studies. I have been guiding the youngsters to choose the most appropriate field of education in my village and in my work area.
• I use to visit my schools and spend many days there to help the students to prepare with their examinations
• I work with the private schools of my village to help their teacher trained occasionally
• Work with my village community to give them guidance and basic education to send their children school instead of putting them into work
• Volunteering with my Church pastor to give any kind of services he wants from me for children and youth of the area.

Reflections on Max Warburg Courage Organization

Max courage organization encouraged me to face the difficulties and problems of life with a different style. The way Max encountered a most difficult situation actually changed my views about problem. Max’s courage helped so many children of that period to get rid of that disease. Now I think even in the most serious problems of life we can be helpful to many other people in similar situations if we keep the courage like Max.   
Story of Max’s courage is really encouraging for so many students around the globe facing lot of challenges like opportunities for education, family problems health issues etc. If we just use Max’s story with the students with challenging situations it can be a very good support for them to face those problems and challenges.
The establishment of Max Warburg courage organization was another big and courageous step for the betterment of the students. The curriculum of English language of Max organization is marvelous. Building partnership with Max organization and adopting the max curriculum at various levels in the Pakistani education system could be very helpful for our students to improve their reading and writing abilities.

Reflections Washington DC

• Visiting Washington DC was a life time experience and it was a privilege for me to visit and explore the various important places of this vary city
• I had heard about monuments of Washington DC but watching and exploring them personally was a wonderful thing for me. I have learned the importance of building those monuments to teach everything about the US leaders to the forth coming generations.
• Visiting museums of Washington DC  was wonderful experience to learn about  American history
• Meeting with the State Department was very good opportunity to learn more about the positive intentions and efforts of US Department of State for the uplift of education standard in Pakistan.
• Visiting senator’s place was good to know about the structure of US Congress. Though we could not meet with the senators we did get an opportunity to go into the capitol which was another worthwhile place to visit.
• Visit to Voice of America gave us a glimpse of the efforts of US Government to promote the culture of transparent media around the world.
• Visiting Washington DC on metro was good to learn about the transport system of USA
• Shopping from various markets of DC was interesting because we learned more about the choices of US people. The availability of variety of food places fit for the people of all nations showed the efforts of the US people government to welcome the people from round the world.  

Proposed Budget for MASTER ACTION PLAN

Sr No.	Nature of expense	Expense( PKRS)
01	Printer to get prints of handouts and worksheet	8000/-
02	Stationery	10000/-
03	Travelling expense(three times to and from each school)	22000/-
04	Banner	1000/-
05	Refreshment or food items( for training sessions only)	7000/-
		48000

PKRS 48000 = $500 (PKRS 96 =$1)

DETAILED REPORT FOR MASTER ACTION PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

I am sending you the detailed report about the implementation of my master action plan in my country.

Master Action Plan: To promote activity based teaching in schools

Targeted School: The MAP was planned to implement in the following schools working under the management of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan in accordance with the seed grant money provided by Department of State. The Schools where MAP had to be implemented are:

1.      Christian Boys’ High School, Martinpur

2.      Christian Girls’ High School, Martinpur

3.      Christian Girls Higher Secondary School, Sangla Hill

                                                                                                                                                      

Copy of my MAP has already been sent to you. The major part of my MAP was to give training workshop to the teachers of above mentioned schools. Originally I had planned to start giving training to the teachers in September and October 2012. Due to seed grant money I could not start working on it until mid November 2012. I had informally discussed it with heads of the schools. I introduced my MAP and PELI at a large number of platforms. In my area of Pakistan all schools follow annual examination and students of different grade take promotion tests in February and March each year. Most of the exam parts are based on rout memorization, so November December and January are very busy months for the students and teachers. It’s very difficult and objectionable from students and parents view point to do anything extra with students apart from preparing the students for the final exams. T he students who take final exams in school have finished their exams and students of some classes go for board exams (like state exams) are on preparing for the exams at homes. Teachers are free from mid February doing preparation for the new academic year. It is best time to give training to teachers to promote teaching style based on activities. I have given training to the teachers of above mentioned schools. The detail of the teachers attended the training sessions is given below:

1.      Christian Boys High School Martinpur                           16 Participants

2.      Christian Girls High School Martinpur                           09 Participants

3.      Christian Girls Higher Secondary School Sangla Hill    18 Participants

                                                           Total beneficiaries   43

So, 43 teachers from 3 schools attended my MAP training sessions. Each of the training session was about three hours long. The training session had following division:

1.      Introduction of PELI, MAP and the way it would be implemented

2.      A large number of general activities done with each group

3.      Discussion on the possible ways of modification of those activities in different subjects and variety of topics

4.      Discussion on the list of activities provided to them

5.      Session on Conflict Resolution and active listening

6.      More general discussions and questions about the MAP

All of the activities I used were taken from those which we did in different sessions while we were at USA during PELI2012. These were conducted by scholarly educationists of Plymouth State University U.S.A. I have handed over a booklet of more general activities to the Principals which will be available to the teachers whenever they want.

The session on Conflict Resolution is another component of the training program. It would help the teachers to practice resolve their conflicts in problem solving manner. It will also be useful for the teachers to help students to resolve conflicts in an effective way.

The new academic session will be started in March. As the students come back to their new classes teachers will use ways of teaching I taught them and I will observe different classes with help of Principals and through occasional visits of schools. I will record some interviews of teachers, students and principals to see to what extent activities have brought changes among students learning. I hope to finish these things by mid of April. So I will submit final report in April 2013.