Sayed Mohibullah Mohib is a teacher and Capacity Building and Quality Team Leader for the network of education centres of the Afghan National Association for Adult Education (ANAFAE).

Adult Education and Development: How did you become an adult educator?

Sayed Mohibullah Mohib: I started teaching during my own studies ten years ago. I taught English as a second language for young adults. At first it was just a job to get some extra income. But I really enjoyed it. Most of my learners were very exciting, had many ideas and dreams about what they wanted to do, and at the same time they really knew why they wanted to learn. In the courses they met others with similar ideas. The courses were always full of life and enthusiastic students. This all made me want to pursue a teaching career.

Please describe your current work. 

At present, I also work as the Capacity Building and Quality Team Leader for more than 360 other teachers working in our Adult and Community Learning Centres. I train them in methodology, classroom management, monitoring learning progress and lesson planning. I also develop teaching material and monitor teacher performance. Our centres are located in urban or semi-urban areas. Young people from 15 to their mid-20s join different education courses. Young Afghans, especially women, like to learn, and attend out of curiosity. The environment of our centre is safe, and families support our education programmes. I am very proud that we have received an international licence to train and certify teachers in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). This has been a huge change in our teacher training. Previously I held a Cambridge CELTA and Train the Trainer Certificate, and now I have obtained TESOL/TEFL Trainer Certification from New York and started the first TESOL training course in Afghanistan. 

Which is your favourite teaching method, and why? 

My favourite methods are TBLT (Task-Based Language Teaching, based on interesting student interactions in the classroom) and CLT (Communicative Language Teaching, promoting student-to-student interactions in a communicative context). I really love to apply the Dogme methods; they give me autonomy to deal with my students based on their interests and demands. When teaching teachers, I always apply the Think-Pair-Share method, which inspires teachers toward critical thinking and creativity in their field of teaching. 

What motivates you?

Teaching is not only my passion, but it also inspires me to be a good adult educator. Most importantly, I found myself quite competent and skilful. It is delightfully motivating to support people and figure out their problems, to be worthwhile to them. Teaching gave me a really good intellectual value and earned me respect in our society. For me teaching means learning; it almost always motivates me to advance and broaden my competences.