A LIFE ON A PAGE BY ABBAS HUSAIN

A LIFE ON A PAGE BY ABBAS HUSAIN

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The following is a decade wise round up of significant events in my life so far.

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Twenties [1977-1986]

“I finished my MA in English Literature from Karachi University and began teaching in the Department of English right away. I attended the UGC Dip TEIL Course, got married, and received the British Council Scholarship to do an M. Ed TESOL from the University of Manchester. I returned to Pakistan in November 1986, with new ideas and enthusiasm to teach in Pakistan. Founder member SPELT [1986].

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Thirties [1987-1997]

“This was a challenging decade. Seeing that teaching English Literature in the Department would have no impact on the system of teaching in our schools, [seeing that habits of the University students were already entrenched], a deep conviction settled in my mind that the work I needed to do was in schools. By this time I was parent of two girls and a son and some foreign trips {to Canada, USA and UK] further strengthened the conviction. Teacher Training became the path then of a lifetime dedication. By 1997 I said farewell to both University of Karachi and AKU-IED and had begun the foundational work on Teachers’ Development Centre.

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Forties/Fifties [1997-2017]

“A vast multi-national exposure to the teacher training scene in Pakistan [all provinces] Muscat, Oman, Dubai, UAE, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Kabul Afghanistan, allowed me to fine tune my work and approach in training. A community invitation to Maahdi at Tarbiyat az Zainabiyya in Burhanpur, India [2013-2016] helped me to connect the ideas to a religious syllabus and I thus reached over 375 teachers of the Dawoodi Bohra Community from the 16 jamiyats of India. The National Prayer Breakfast in Washington [with President Barack Obama] was a highlight of 2009. A British Council partnership for CONNECTING CLASSROOMS and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto YDP program for training 375 teacher educators was a rare opportunity to see the various facets of the profession.

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Sixties [2017- ongoing!]

“The Lifetime Achievement Award received on February 22, 2020 from Roots Millennium Institute of Professional Development from the hands of Dr. A. Q. Khan was a high point of the year. Other than that the ONLINE TEACHING EXCELLENCE COURSE, the NOVICE TEACHERS COURSE, the ENGLISH SKILLS DEVELOPMENT ONLINE and two cohorts of FEARLESS LEADERSHIP in collaboration with Noor ul Huda Foundation were great opportunities in expanding my repertoire in offering engaging training.

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LOOKING AHEAD:

“A central passion of my life has been books: reading them, thinking about them, collecting them, quoting them, getting other people to read them. I am looking forward to publishing some of my work too!”