The Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program funded by the Regional English Language Office (RELO) at the U.S Embassy Islamabad provides 100 English language teachers an opportunity to visit US on a fully funded six-week cultural exchange program at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.
Vision-Building Future (VBF) is implementing the TEA program 2022-23 in Pakistan for outstanding in-service government and foundation secondary school English language teachers. The training program is designed to enhance teachers’ expertise in their teaching discipline and equip them with the latest practices in teaching methodology, curriculum development, leadership, and teacher training skills. This program allows the teachers to acquire a comprehensive understanding of U.S culture and educational practices, and to develop productive, lasting relationships and mutual understanding between U.S. and Pakistani teachers and students.
The training program intends to contribute to improving the teaching standards in Pakistan by preparing participants to serve as leaders of their communities and to apply and share their experience and skills with their peers and students.
VBF aims to recruit teachers from geographically and culturally diverse areas and challenging backgrounds for this professional development program. The success of the program is ensured by partnering with local government bodies, newspapers, and radio channels to encourage applications from the rural and underprivileged areas of Pakistan. Campaigns are organized in far-flung areas such as Azad Jammu & Kashmir Gilgit, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa etc. to maximize the outreach of the program. Moreover, live sessions are conducted on social media to facilitate prospective applicants with the application process for the upcoming program cycle.
After attending the program, participants will become member of Pakistan- US Alumni Network and will be eligible to apply for TEA small grants award to conduct a 10-week training in their district to share their knowledge. “TEA program not only enhanced my teaching skills but also provided me an opportunities to cascade the learned knowledge and skills to the ELTs in AJK.
