Oldham's Aim High Goes International

Aim High International!

Arif Mohid, the director and renowned local maths teacher, used his half term in February 2019 to fund his own trip to Bangladesh and share his experience with an international school which is training teachers to provide education according to the UK system. Due to his extensive experience of teaching and training in the UK over the last 10 years he was selected as the lead trainer and teacher for the project.

The aim is to allow their students to compete on a global level for universities and jobs.

His time there was intense and very busy, consisting of teaching, observations and detailed feedback from early in the morning till late at night. He delivered training programmes on cognitive load theory, assessment for learning, pedagogy as well as modelling lessons. He was involved in video feedback to the staff and he was thoroughly impressed by the level of commitment they had to improving their performance, learning new techniques and taking tips from his experience in the UK.

As well this, the jam packed schedule also included teaching and visiting in the Rohingya camps as well as a children’s shelter for vulnerable children in the capital of Dhaka.

The Rohingya are refugees who have been victims of horrendous ethnic cleansing and violence in their native land of Myanmar. Bangladesh has been critical in providing shelter and decent living conditions for these displaced people. There are millions of refugees being given food, water, shelter and education in the refugee villages which have been set up by the government and hundreds of charities in the Cox Bazar area of Bangladesh.

Arif spent some time with the families and young children and got involved with teaching in some of the classrooms in the camps. He describes his experience as “truly satisfying, but heart-breaking to see and hear the trauma these people have faced”.

He says, “I am humbled to see how much Bangladeshi government and so many charities are doing to help these people and wish there was something more permanent we could do. However, the fact that there are people here trying to educate the young is a positive step and will gives us hope for the future. I am privileged to be a small part of this during my trip and pray that we really can give the young people in these camps skills and education that will help to lift them out of this terrible situation they are in”.

Arif hopes to return and do more of these training sessions and be more involved in charity both here and abroad. He is committed to using his platform as a teacher to make as much difference as possible.

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