Telangana: Teacher shines on global platform after seven arduous years

Syed Irshad Ali, a 40-year-old postgraduate teacher from Model School and Government Junior College in Pegadapally village, Jagtial district, is celebrating after seven years of tenacity, as he attended the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (FTEA) program at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, US.

The six-week FTEA program, overseen by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, provides opportunities for secondary school teachers to participate in professional development programs at respected US institutions.

For the 2024 program, Irshad was one of seven instructors carefully selected from across the nation, and one of only two selected from Telangana. Irshad was chosen after nationwide interviews and his score of 61 on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) attempt.

Irshad had been hoping to be a part of the program for the previous seven years, and it eventually paid off when he was chosen to join a cohort of instructors from 19 other nations and attend the program.

“The six-week program has been a one-of-a-kind experience that gave me an exposure to different cultures and people from various parts of the world,” Irshad said in an interview with TNIE. In addition to sharing knowledge and teaching strategies, the program broadened my perspective and exposed me to issues that teachers in other nations faced; some of these issues were extreme, while others were similar to what we experience in India. This helped me comprehend both the infrastructure advancements made by India and the areas in which we still need to improve.

Irshad went on to say that the program’s talks on gender rights, English pedagogy, and visit to Harvard University significantly enhanced his educational experience.

With a total of 14 years of teaching experience, Irshad has spent the last 11 years at the Model School, where he instructs pupils in English language proficiency in grades 9 through 12.

In addition, he has served as a state resource, helped create a number of training courses for English instructors in the state, and received the district-level best teacher award for 2022 in recognition of his exceptional English teaching performance throughout the Covid-19 era.

Irshad, a father of a son and a daughter, emphasized the need of empowering and supporting female students, particularly in rural areas where girls face various obstacles that impede their education. He added that this accomplishment amounted to an additional responsibility for him to raise teacher awareness about ways to improve the quality of education in government schools.