Following the request of Federally Administered Tribal Areas Administration of education, USAID has initiated the Fata Female Teachers Scholarship Programmes as a part of PTEPDP initiative.
Under the programme, AED will administer scholarships to 20 eligible pre-service teachers from the Fata to attend the B.Ed. course at the Govt. College of Education for Elementary Teachers (Female) Jamrod, Khayber Agency, Fata.
Currently, the GCET (F) Jamrod has four US trained PTEPDP alumni teaching three subjects of English, Mathematics and Science.
AED will also support the college in improving its library facility and monitoring the progress of the trainees.
Under this programme the scholarships as well as technical assistance to GCET, Jamrod would enable the directorate of Education, Fata to train about 100 more, women as teachers in the region during the next five years.
The successful graduates will then be appointed as teachers in grade 16 in Fata government schools.
The programme will ensure availability of locally qualified teachers in government schools at Fata.
After successfully completing training of 172 master teacher trainers in the US, PTEPDP has moved into the second phase of in-country teacher training programmes.
Under PTEPDP, AED would organise a number of three to four months in-country/local teacher training events starting from February 2006 onwards.
The programme would train an increasing number of master teacher trainers in mathematics, English as a second language and science in three leading government institutions of Islamabad: National Institute of Science and Technical Education (NISTE), National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and Federal College of Education with technical support from selected US universities.
This initiative will build the capacity of Pakistani teacher training institutions and facilitate long-tern linkages between US universities and their Pakistani counterparts.
The expansion will increase the impact of the programme and reach greater number of master teacher trainers.