Joan Atkinson College of Teacher Education

Training women as teachers

Good schools depend on good teachers. The Joan Atkinson College of Teacher Education (JACTE) in Bassali, near Rawat in Rawalpindi district, trains women from rural communities as primary teachers, so they can teach in KEF’s schools or set up and work in schools in their own localities.

Our partner, the Kashmir Education Foundation (KEF), started the college in 2001; it was earlier known as KEF’s Institute of Teacher Education. According to KEF, it has trained 1,250 teachers. The college shares a site with Soan Valley Public School, so trainees gain classroom experience throughout their course. The site also has a hostel for women trainees and accommodation for visiting teacher trainers.

Trainee teachers and trainers with their course folders at KEF’s teacher training institute in Bassali.

A modern approach to teaching

Teaching in Pakistan has often relied on rote memorisation, with pupils assessed on what they can recall rather than what they understand. The college’s Diploma in Primary Education takes a different approach. It aims to:

• encourage young women from rural communities to become primary teachers, in KEF’s schools and in schools in their own localities;
• develop interactive teaching that helps children understand and apply what they learn about the world around them;
• strengthen trainees’ spoken and written English, so they can use it confidently as a medium of teaching and learning.

Many trainees come from village families who cannot meet the cost of fees and accommodation on their own, so donors’ support helps keep the course open to them.

Honouring Joan Atkinson

The college is named after Joan Atkinson, a teacher and headteacher in the UK, who visited KEF’s teacher training institute at Bassali, then helped to establish Quest for Education Foundation as a consultant and worked closely with QEF and KEF. She championed every child’s right to an education, girls included, and supported KEF’s work until she died in January 2018. Read our tribute to Joan Atkinson.

Life at the college

Be part of this legacy

One well-trained teacher reaches class after class of children. Your Sadaqah Jariyah helps build and maintain classrooms, train teachers and keep schools open, so every new class of children benefits from your gift.

Giving Zakat? KEF applies Zakat as concessions on fees, hostel and meals for eligible trainee teachers. Please read how KEF applies Zakat before you give through our Zakat-only checkouts.