Closing Ceremony of ToT on ECD Diploma & Certificate Course

The concluding ceremony of the Training of Trainers on Early Childhood Development in Diploma & Certificate course was held at Karakoram International University. The event was attended by VC KIU Eng. Prof Dr. Atta Ullah Shah, CEO RF Mr. Waseem Samad, Vice Chairperson Mr. Ghulam Tahir, Dean Department of Educational Development Dr. Muhammad Ramazan and senior faculty and staff of both the partner organizations. This two-week course was the result of  MoU being signed between RF and KIU during the first Seminar on Early Childhood Development in 2018. On the occasion of the closing, CEO Rupani Foundation shared the objectives of ToT, one of them was to provide qualified and certified ECD teachers to the region as well as to the country to counter the shortage of qualified teachers. He further shared RF’s role in promoting ECD that included collaboration with the Government to develop the ECD Framework. CEO also mentioned that Follow-ups have been made on almost all major recommendations presented at the last year’s seminar with the assistance of VC, Dean Department of Educational Development and all the facilitators. Moreover, he hoped that as a pioneer Institution KIU can lead the whole process and the center for research on ECD and research and training will start operating soon.  CEO also expected that under the Department of Educational Development_KIU, the trainees will now focus on research and will write research papers on ECD soon and present them on the platform of forthcoming International Conference on ECD at Islamabad.
The Guest of Honor, Vice Chancellor stressed that the ECE and ECD are one of the most important pillars of Early education. He mentioned that in European countries the investment in ECD has increased to 20-25 % whereas the most neglected development domain in the rest of the country is ECD. He also said that due to the efforts of organizations such as Rupani Foundation, Gilgit-Baltistan is leading among provinces in ECD education. VC further affirmed that KIU will collaborate on many such endeavors with RF in the near future to accelerate ECD processes.
Reflections were also shared by participants. Furthermore,  VC KIU distributed certificates among the ToT participants. The day ended with a renewed commitment towards the promotion of Eary Childhood Development.