ISLAMABAD: Keeping its legacy, Millennium Education organized Pakistan’s largest Teacher Development Conference TDC 2023 on the visionary theme- “Futurist- Quests-Challenges – Journey” at Pak-China Friendship Center, Islamabad last day says a press release. Keeping in view the accelerated pace at which changes are occurring in teaching and learning, the conference endeavoured to preserve the finest and most worthy means of talent development, while at the same time looking to the future of education and talent pedagogy for sustainable growth. Nearly 1000 teachers from The Millennium Education Group nationwide and organizers were enthusiastic and highly motivated to take the learning initiatives and training ahead to their classrooms.
This year’s conference brought together leading national and international speakers including Mr. Abbas Husain, Director Teachers Development Centre, Dr. Mariam Chugatai, Director National Curriculum Council of Pakistan, Yousaf Bashir Qureshi , actor and social worker, Fahd Husain , Special assistant to the Prime Minister on Public Policy and Strategic Communications, Shireen Naqvi Founder School of Leadership, Dr Moiz Hussain, Founder Institute of Mind Sciences, Amir Ramzan, Director British Council, Izza Farrukh Senior Education Specialist The World Bank, and Faisal Aftab, Founder BitRate Digital, who motivated and injected new ideas into the conference delegates comprising the Millennium Education Founder & CEO Dr. Faisal Mushtaq TI.
Millennium Education Annual Teacher Development conference TD/C is the largest gathering of educators, teacher educators, reformers and thinkers who are fiercely committed to transform teaching and learning practices. For the past many years, this platform has provided a phenomenal opportunity to think tanks and classroom practitioners to engage in discussions and dialogues on issues that matter the most for the students, they serve, to achieve educational excellence and equity.
Dr. Musadiq Malik, Minister of State (Petroleum Division), graced this auspicious occasion as the worthy Chief Guest, who presented awards and certificates to teachers who had completed their Cambridge Professional development qualifications, foundation courses and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert certificates. The respectable Minister appreciated Millennium Education commitment to the overall development of learners who, alongside academics, are seen in the forefront in all the international and national mega events.
H.E. Andreas Ferrarese, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy, President RCCI Mr. Saqib Rafiq and President ICCI Mr. Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari were the Guests of honour on this famed conference. The worthy ambassador highlighted the multifarious responsibility of teachers in an era of interconnected dimensions and emphasized that it has become imperative to transform our schools from centers of teaching and learning to hubs of innovation, creativity, and excellence.
Mr. Abbas Hussain, the founder of SPELT (Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers), enlightened the delegates about the significance of ‘Asking the right questions” in classroom situations. He alluded to different factors that contribute to classroom complexities and suggested many strategies for resolution. He urged the audience to “Let the questions turn into a quest” to ensure futurist classroom.
Dr. Mariam Chughtai referred to equity and inclusion as hallmark of education that ensures equal access for all learners to curriculum and programming within an educational setting. She explained that this challenge might be difficult to meet but is vital in setting pace and tone for futurist classrooms. She stressed the need to close the opportunity and achievement gap because ‘Every child matters!’. Yousaf Bashir Qureshi spoke elaborately about the importance of self-actualization in today’s fast paced world. A person who can take full advantage of their talents while still being mindful of their limitations is able to demonstrate empathy and compassion for others. Fahd Hussain talked about revisiting social contract to instill hope that learners need to survive and succeed in the future world that is interspersed with many challenges. He emphasized the need for students to devise solutions to complex problems by creativity, analytical thinking, collaboration, communication, ethics, and accountability. His message of healing children with hope and empathy hit the spot with the audience. Ms. Shireen Naqvi addressed the crucial question of how to help our learners to discover and rediscover themselves while preparing for what is around the corner. She pointed that future is all about output, innovation, exploration and discovery. Lending intrinsic motivation to learning goals and changing mind-sets will open infinite possibilities to future success. Dr. Moiz Hussain educated the audience on strategies to ‘unleash the genius ‘in a learner. He explained three faculties of mind: visualization, creative visualization and imagination as vital in this context. Identifying various learning styles based on emotional intelligence, trusting a child and showing empathy will help teachers in creating a genius.
Dr. Faisal Mushtaq TI, Founder & CEO The Millennium Education Group, while addressing the session, talked about the underlying objective of the conference. His discourse revolved around creating classroom as a learning studio and to replace the standard lecture approach, for intellectual growth of our futurists by urging teachers, “Give your room some class”. He reiterated the importance of teachers as “Vehicle of Change” and motivated them to create their potential as futurists. He stressed the importance of sound pedagogical foundations, interactive engagement, creativity, diversity, collaborative, and experiential learning as the key denominators to meaningful learning and intellectual development. He reiterated that the institution’s support of the legendary history of teaching, learning, and knowledge creation has been the reason why the conference was conducted. From the beginning, the vision of the Teacher Development Conferences has been to bring teachers into direct contact with leading scholars, academia, and educational thinkers in a stimulating environment. In the end, Mr. Abbas Hussain glossed the learning outcomes of the training and presented the closing remarks.
This Teacher’s Development Conference 2023 was all about providing word class learning opportunities to the teachers. This conference aimed to provide the teachers with a platform to express themselves not only as educators, but also to discover the hidden potential in each one of them that leads to the discovery of their ultimate identity.