ISLAMABAD: The Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) has started the second phase of the teachers training programme under which as many as 2100 teachers of the schools working under CADD will be trained. The Minister of State for CADD, Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, chaired a meeting and finalised matters regarding the teachers’ training, said a news release on Monday. The meeting was attended by the Adviser of CADD on Education, Mr. Ali Raza, Secretary CADD, Ms. Nargis Ghalloo and officials from the FDE. The meeting was informed that during first phase of the teachers’ training, all the teachers from 22 schools had been trained which was very instrumental in enhancing the skill of the teachers. During the second phase, a total of 2100 teachers will be trained till May 2017 in the foundation course, English Language Development and techniques of teaching Science, Mathematics and English. During the meeting, the minister said that the aim of the training project was to revamp the current training programme by introducing a formal in-house Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme that helped teachers to upgrade their knowledge and skills, equip them with essential teaching skills and enabled them to create a student-centred learning environment. In addition to this, the teachers’ training system was also linked with the appraisal and promotion system of the teachers. A project Management Unit for the PMERP is established under CADD to carry out quality interventions in all areas mainly focusing on academic development, capacity building of existing and newly inducted teaching and non-teaching staff and organizational development initiatives at the FDE level to define proper reporting lines and develop responsibility matrices. The Adviser informed the meeting that a comprehensive Training Need Analysis was carried out before developing the training programmes and training modules were established depending upon the deficiencies mentioned in the Analysis. He said that there was a need to revamp the in-house professional development programme to ensure quality education and an improved classroom learning environment. He added that it was extremely important to revamp the CPD Programme which enables teachers to employ contemporary strategies and a learner centred approach to foster critical and higher order thinking skills in students. Moreover, the CPD Programme is made an integral part for appraisal and promotion. The PMERP is employing several strategies to revamp the public sector education institutions in Islamabad by improving the overall standards of teaching and learning along with providing access and creating a conducive learning environment for the students. These strategies include restructuring of the Federal Directorate of Education to improve governance to strengthen ICT schools and colleges, quality interventions at ICT schools with special focus on Area Education Officers, teachers and school heads, up-gradation of the physical infrastructure of 422 educational institutions (including missing facilities) and provision of 200 busses and engagement with development partners (Donors, Private sector schools and corporate entities.