ABBAS Husain is Director, Teachers’ Development Centre. His work in the training of teachers has made him a distinguished voice in the education field. He has so far reached over 87,000 teachers in Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, giving him unique expertise in the field. The pandemic has reorganized all our priorities and his efforts to offer viable solutions for today have been appreciated countrywide.
His own training and education at the Universities of Karachi, Manchester, Toronto, Louisville and Chicago added to a passionate dedication to remaining updated with the latest thinking in the field of teacher education makes him a sought-after speaker. He is a Founder member of SPELT and is known as an articulate advocate of the intellectual authority of teachers in society.
ABBAS HUSAIN was awarded the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD by Mohsin-e-Pakistan Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan at the Teachers’ Development Conference of Millennium Institute of Professional Development, Islamabad on February 22, 2020.
On March 12, 2022, he was awarded the EDUCATION ICON award by Mohammad Azfar Ahsan, Minister of State, Government of Pakistan at the 3rd National Education Summit hosted by Pakistan Academic Consortium, Karachi.
Abbas Husain brings with him a unique perspective of change and resistance to change in the education system of Pakistan. Having been exposed to a vast number of educationists, school teachers, heads and coordinators, he is able to share his insights on the challenges of change in urban education in Pakistan.
As Director of Teachers’ Development Centre since 1997, he has conducted numerous workshops and training seminars on cutting edge themes in education with a clear eye on what is possible in our context.
His work in the training of teachers has made him a distinguished voice in the education field. He has so far reached over 85,000 teachers in Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Afghanistan and Tajikistan giving him unique expertise in the field. Abbas Husain has conducted the Master Teacher’s Course since 1998, and has so far contributed over 452 teacher trainers to the national pool of trainers, Significantly, 70 of them are in leadership positions at present and most of the others are a source of influential ideas and practices in their respective schools. The range of service spans a wide spectrum: from elite schools, to private schools, to trust schools to the public sector schools.
He brings with him a unique perspective of change and resistance to change in the education system of Pakistan. Having been exposed to a vast number of educationists, school teachers, heads, coordinators, and head of departments he is able to share his insights on the resistance to change, the challenges to change in urban society of Pakistan.
Consultant: PAF Finishing School, Islamabad since 1996 to date.
TDC was a partner with the British Council in their Connecting Classrooms Project, 2007-2010
TDC conducted a Staff Development Program at Cadet College, Petaro, in May, July 2011
Keynote Speaker at ROOTS Millennium Schools Teachers’ Development Conferences, Islamabad since 2006
January – May 2016: English Skills Development for Bank AL Habib
July 2016: Mapping Education in the 21st Century. PUAN International Conference
September and December 2016: Conducted Training of Trainers for Senior Leadership of Beaconhouse School System and Salamat School System
October 2016: Conducted World Cafe session for 350 participants at Principals’ Conference – organized by Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB)
December 2016: Leadership Skills for KASHF Foundation Lahore
April – May & December 2016: Personal Effectiveness Toolkit for Interloop Faisalabad and ChildLife Foundation Karachi.
January 2017: A Passion for Teaching for AL Farabi School Karachi
Febuary 2017: Personal Effectiveness Toolkit for Childlife Foundation Karachi
March 2017: Class observation & A Passion for Teaching Workshop for The Guidance House School, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir
March 2017: Language Audit at Habib public School & Habib Girls School Karachi
April 2017: ROOTS FUTURE WORLD CAMPUS Inauguration Ceremony at Bahria Town Karachi City School Conference Islamabad
May 2017: Activities for Teaching Literacy Workshop for Society of International Education, Karachi
A session for DOOR OF AWARENESS Lahore
July 2017: Master Teachers’ Course 17, 6 Key Principles at DCTO Lyari School Karachi (Kiren Foundation)
August 2017: A Passion for Teaching at Nasra Public School Karachi, Love Learning Conference 2017 in Lahore & Pedagogical Skills at Air University Islamabad
May-June 2018: BUSINESS LANGUAGE FOR BANKERS COURSE AT BANK AL HABIB KARACHI.
December 2018: Conducted workshop at Sindh Grammar School.
July 2019: Conducted three day workshop in English Skills Development and Teachers as Trainers for faculty of Cadet College Ormara, at Ormara, Balochistan
September 2019: Novice Teachers Course 2019
January 2020: Conducted a two-day training session at SUI MODEL SCHOOL AND GIRL’S COLLEGE, district Sui, Balochistan.
June and July 2020: Conducted the Online Teaching Excellence Course, covering forty five hours of effective strategies on how to adapt online teaching.
July 2021: Master Teachers’ Course 19
November 2021: Spoke at the seminar ‘Investing in Inclusion: Unpacking Pakistan’s Single National Curriculum’.
November 2021: The Dramatic Classroom with Applied Drama Practitioner Muneeb ur Rehman
February 2022: Presented the Shield of Honour from The Islamia University of Bahawalpur
March 2022: Awarded the EDUCATION ICON award by Mohammad Azfar Ahsan, Minister of State, Government of Pakistan at the 3rd National Education Summit.
June 2022: THE 20th MASTER TEACHER’S COURSE was held at TDC. Seventeen participants received certificates on completion of rigorous 100 hours of training in 18 intense sessions. This year’s MTC explored three hubs of concern in great detail: INWARD ALIGNMENT, CLASSROOM ALIGNMENT and SCHOOL ALIGNMENT were explored in great detail.
July 2022: Conducted a four-day Leadership and Management Workshop for Government School Heads in Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan where TDC offered the ideas and strategies emerging from the FIFTH DISCIPLINE, Peter Senge’s model of the Learning Organization.
May 2008: Speaker at the UK- Pakistan School Leadership Conference at National College of School Leadership, Nottingham, UK.
February 2009: Attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C with President Obama as Chief Guest.
March 2010: Conducted a Whole School Turnover Project in Pakistan School, Muscat, Oman.
February 2013: Led with his team the Afghanistan Teachers Capacity Building Workshop at TDC. He is active in the Compassionate Schools Network, and in May 2013 trained teachers and Heads in Kabul, Afghanistan.
May 2013: Conducted Leadership Training for Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, Kabul
May and November 2013 & 2014: School Leadership Training in Mumbai and Burhanpur, India. He conducted School Leadership Training in Dubai, UAE in 2015.
November 2015, February and November 2016: Training of Teachers at Ma’had Tarbiyyat Zainabiyya, Burhanpur India.
SCHOLARSHIP
His credentials as an Islamic scholar are not traditional but fueled by a personal passion for the Divine Message. He has benefited from the continuous companionship of eminent scholars like Professor Karrar Husain, Dr Hamid Hasan Bilgrami (author of Fuyuz-ul-Quran) and Sufi Masters for over 25 years. He has met Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Sirajuddin), Gai Eaton (Hasan Abdul Hakim) Carl Ernst, Vernon Schubel, Shaykh Fadhlallah Haeri and Etsko Schuitema (among others). Except the first two who are no more, his learning continues from all these men of illumination and insight.
His own study of classical sources of Islam allows him a balanced stance towards modernity. His personal library contains a vast collection of books which serve as an almost complete contemporary map of Islamic/Qur’anic studies in English and Urdu. His “humble review” of The Study Quran may be seen on YouTube.[ A "Humble Review" of The Study Quran - Abbas Husain
He was Professor of Islamic Studies at the Aga Khan University School of Nursing from 1980 to 1999. He has co-authored (with Khurram Shafiq) three textbooks of Islamiat published by the Oxford University Press. But his major contribution is in his complete study of the Qur'an in English [preserved on Audio and Video cassettes,] completed over six years (1998-2002). His significant contribution may be defined as an intelligent faith based interpretation of the Qur’an with a keen eye for the challenges and contradictions of modernity.
OUTREACH
He has been conducting Spiritual Enrichment classes at PAF Finishing School since 1996. It may be noted that there two Courses a year and the present Course of January 2019 is the 44th Course: Abbas Husain has taught in all 44 Courses.
He deals with a Model of Islam and offer ways of thinking about the Quran and the Prophet that are in consonance with the traditional sources and modernity. A description of the Model can be found in A CONFIRMED VISION, a paper read by him at the National Seminar Hazara Society of Science and Religious Dialogue, in September 2003. A second major offering on Quranic studies is THE LAST TWELVE SURAS OF THE QURAN, A study in structure. The choice of the English language in the talks, plus an attempt to interpret the history and wisdom of Islam to reach out to an increasingly skeptical youth has earned him, in some circles, a growing reputation as an Islamic voice for our times,
His public lectures at London (2001), Houston (2002) and regular studies and speaking invitations from different organizations, such as, Air War College, National Defense College, ITREB, and The Arabic Academy Karachi, plus television appearances on Geo TV, AAJ TV, DAWN NEWS and Indus Vision have slowly and steadily ensured a growing appreciation of his elaboration of the Qur’anic text in urban Pakistan. His tapes have been received with high regard in, among other places, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Toronto, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has attended a Conference on ‘Voices of Wisdom’ in Pretoria, South Africa, in April 2005.
In May 2005 he has concluded a Digital Video Conferences Project PASSING ON ISLAM with the collaboration of ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) conducted for and by the teachers and educators in Pakistan and USA. A total of 13 programs were conducted which were aimed at promoting harmony and peace between the Islamic world and other ethnic communities specially in the West .The crux of the program was to identify prevalent misconceptions about Islam and to counter those by inculcating dialogues about peace and tolerance. The DVDs from these sessions are in use by school teachers in Karachi and Lahore.
On April 10 2006, he addressed the seminar ISLAM AND THE MODERN WORLD conducted by the English Speaking Union and the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad with President Gen Pervez Musharraf as the Chief Guest.
In February 2009, he was invited to the NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST in Washington DC with President Barack Obama as Chief Guest. This was an extension of his work with the training of madrasah teachers at an INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR RELIGION AND DIPLOMACY initiative. It must be noted that Abbas Husain’s interactions with the madrasah teachers of various sectarian groups [Barelvi, Shia, Ismaili and his own Dawoodi Bohra] offers him a perspective on intra-faith harmony as much as his reading of the saints and mystics on the Jewish and Christian Traditions offers him insights into inter-faith harmony.
He conducts an ongoing Quran Class [three sessions a month since 2011 to date] where he offers reflections on the Holy Book based on the best of recent thinking on what may be called human nature and the cosmos. These gatherings have a significant following, as Abbas Husain is one of the few scholars who imparts wisdom in both English and Urdu. A steady stream of public talks and appearances, mark his engagement with the community of seekers.
On March 16, 2019, he was invited by the Noor Ul Huda Foundation to deliver a short speech titled 'Teaching Islam for and in the Next Millennium'.
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