5 Paktika towns to have teacher training centres

SHARANA (Pajhwok): Teacher training centres are being set up in five districts of southeastern Paktika province, officials said on Tuesday.

The move is aimed at enhancing teachers’ academic capacity, the provincial education director, Kuchai Zazai, told Pajhwok Afghan News in an exclusive interview.

He said a teacher training college and a resource centre were currently available in the province and such facilities would be made functional in five towns next year with support from the Ministry of Education.

Zazai said the centres would be established in Omna, Yahyakhel, Yusafkhel, Surobi and Mata Khan districts to help teachers become professional.

He said 698 teachers had appeared in the Priority Reconstruction Reforms (PRR) test in Paktika and successful candidates would be granted pay raise and other privileges. 

He said eligible individuals were being appointed to fill 22 posts laying vacant at the provincial education department and a test had already been conducted in this regard

Meanwhile, schoolteachers welcomed the proposed establishment of more training centers for them, saying the initiative would yield positive results.

Mohammad Ikram, a teacher at Mohammad Rafq School, said the PPR examination held key to determining a teacher’s capacity.

Wasif Khan, who teaches at Sado Qala School in Mata Khan, said: “If I go to a teacher training college in Sharana, it will waste a lot of time.”

He added the proposed teacher training centres would help bolster the ratio of professional teachers in remote districts, including Mata Khan.

Around 3,632 teachers, including 992 females, are serving at schools across Paktika.

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