A three-day training programme titled “Professional Capacity Development of Teachers of the Faculty of Agriculture at Gazipur Agricultural University” began at the Faculty of Agriculture of Gazipur Agricultural University (GAU) under the Higher Education Acceleration and Transformation (HEAT) Project, carrying the slogan “Skilled Teachers, Improved Agricultural Education”.
The training aims to enhance the quality of agricultural education, upgrade agricultural education to international standards, and strengthen preparations for achieving accreditation of the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture programme, reads a press release.
The inaugural session of the training programme was held at the university’s Old Auditorium at 9:30am on Monday. GAU Vice-Chancellor GKM Mostafizur Rahman inaugurated the programme.
The training, which will continue until Wednesday, is being attended by 92 teachers from the Faculty of Agriculture, ranging from lecturers to professors.
Md Abdul Baset Mia, Sub-Project Manager (SPM) of the concerned sub-project, chaired the inaugural session.
The programme began with a welcome speech by Assistant Sub-Project Manager (ASPM) Md Ruhul Amin.
Addressing the event as the chief guest, Mostafizur said, “Accreditation is an important benchmark for determining the quality of higher education in the present world. To ensure internationally standard agricultural education, we need to make our teaching methods, curriculum, assessment system and research activities more time-befitting and outcome-oriented.”
He further said, “Agriculture in Bangladesh is now technology-driven and innovation-oriented. In this context, the university is taking all-out initiatives to align agricultural education with international standards. This training is an important milestone in that journey.”
Later, the chair of the session highlighted the goals, objectives and significance of the training before concluding the inaugural session.
In the second session, renowned experts of the country conducted technical sessions on various contemporary and important topics for the participating teachers.
During the session, Managing Director of Cloud Connect AI Brig Gen Tamjidul Haque Chowdhury discussed “The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Agricultural Revolution”.
Former GAU MA Karim and former Director General of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Md Shahidul Islam highlighted the importance of global research partnerships and international collaboration.
Meanwhile, former professor of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) Md Zahir Uddin provided training on different strategies for effective classroom management to improve the quality of education.
On the second and third days of the training, 10 expert professors from GAU will conduct sessions on their respective fields.
Through the programme, participants will gain knowledge about modern Outcome-Based Education (OBE) teaching methods, research capacity development, international collaboration and various aspects of technology-based agricultural education.
The authorities consider the training programme a significant roadmap towards enhancing the professional capacity of teachers of the Faculty of Agriculture, improving the quality of education and achieving international accreditation for the BSc in Agriculture programme.
