The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the University of Malakand (UoM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tuesday for establishing the first Self Access Centre (SAC) under the English Language Teaching Reforms Project (ELTR) Phase-II.
The MoU was signed by Dr Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director, HEC and Dr Muhammad Rasul Jan, Vice Chancellor, UoM. An amount of Rs 1.5 million has been given to the university to establish the Centre at its English Department.
The centre will facilitate the faculty at UoM and serve as a hub for the English faculty of KP. The centre will facilitate teachers' training, especially in the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Internet Mediated Language Learning (IML). It will also enable the teachers to use latest tools of computer and internet in language classrooms and help teachers and researchers to update their knowledge about the latest trends in language learning and teaching.
Under ELTR (Phase-I), Self Access Centres were established at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad and Bahauddin Zakriya University (BZU), Multan. The ELTR (Phase-II) is more focused towards achievement of its goals to facilitate English Language and Literature faculty across Pakistan.
Dr Naqvi said that incorporating technology in the regular learning process is imperative and these centres will accelerate teaching as well as learning process. He added that HEC is giving special attention to improve the level of English language teaching in our universities and for this purpose, special courses have been designed for training of English teachers. The Vice Chancellor thanked HEC for selecting University of Malakand for this model Centre and expressed full confidence in the University's English Department to run this Centre. -PR