In the last week of July 2008, a five day training session was organized by the Teacher Training Department of the Diocese of Raiwind Education System (DRES) in collaboration with the Intel® Education Initiative. The program aimed to equip participants with 21st century skills for the classroom. Sixteen participants took part in the course - 14 from St Peter’s High School and two from Dar-ul-Mussarat, a school for children with special needs.

The training emphasized the development of 21st century skills and discussed the pros and cons of teacher-centered instruction and student-centered learning. The participants also learned basic computer Internet skills in order to efficiently and effectively access information. Participants were astonished by the benefits of using multimedia in presentations to make student learning more interesting and interactive. The last day was dedicated to practical activities, where teachers further extended their skills in creating presentations and projects for the classroom.

Mrs. Resha Qadir Bakhsh and Rev. Nasim Fiaz from the DRES Coordination Team and Mrs Rena Shakir, the principal of St Peter’s High School reviewed the work of the course trainees. At the end of the five day training session, they thanked the participants and trainer for their hard work in establishing 21st century learning skills.

Teacher feedback was also extremely positive:

“I am grateful to Intel for providing such an opportunity through which we can extend our repertoire of teaching and learning.” - Kamar Azeem, teacher, St Peter’s High School.

“I realize that a modern classroom is a changed place. It’s more open, more productive and more student-centric. We need to emphasize on student-centered learning.” - Nadia Yousaf, teacher, St Peter’s High School.

“At first I was not very excited about learning computers as I deemed that it is a difficult trait. After the training I feel extremely excited and enthralled; computers are very helpful.” - Khurram Bhatti, teacher, St. Peter’s High School.