For the past month, Plymouth State University has been host to a group of 20 Pakistani educators who have been recognized for their leadership capabilities in their country and volunteered their time to learn about the American education system.

This is the sixth year PSU has offered the program that is part of the Pakistani Educational Leadership Institute (PELI).

The group of educators this year came from all different backgrounds and schools. Some teach at private institutions and public schools while others are teachers in training who are here learning new leadership skills and methods they can use in their educational system to make positive changes in Pakistani communities on the other side of the world.

"It's a cross-cultural experience, in that we're able to share with our guests from Pakistan some of our educational ideas and concepts," said Chris Williams, director of Public Relations at PSU. "Collectively we're building a network of educators who are really working to make a difference in Pakistan and to improve education."

Through funding from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, PSU has been able to train 100 Pakistani educators during the past five summers. This year PELI alumni are playing a critical role in the development and implementation of the "Education in Emergency" model for use in humanitarian efforts to teach Pakistani children in refugee camps.

"Whatever we have experienced here, we will be able to incorporate it into the class as a teacher," said Nahid, an assistant instructor in Karachi. "There are many of ways of incorporating what we learned here into our school system in Pakistan."

The unique collaboration crosses boundaries by connecting both New Hampshire and Pakistan teaching communities. The program engages the communities of New Hampshire in educational and cultural exchanges with the Pakistani delegates.

"When we came in the program, we were expecting we would have hands-on experience and visits to the institutes and schools to meet with some big organizations," said Nahid. "After spending a complete month here, I think we have fulfilled our expectations and we have achieved what we came for."

During their visit, they made several observations, pointing out some significant differences, as well as some similarities between the educational systems. In addition, they shared some of the cultural differences, specifically life in New Hampshire compared to that in Pakistan.

"Mostly, I think that it was quite an amazing experience for us," said Zaki, one of the government high school teachers from Peshawar. "There are excellent teacher training programs here. [By traveling here] it gives us an opportunity [to bring back information] and we [can] implement it in our country."

The teachers and administrators who came to PSU have various educational backgrounds, coming from private and public schools as well as universities, colleges and grade schools. Over the course of their stay, they were given a tightly packed schedule that let them experience the different types of schools here in the U.S., including university-level education and high school.

"We had a good experience visiting school, experiencing classroom teachings and meeting people in the science education programs," said Fazeelat, a government teacher at a secondary high school for girls in Nowshera. "I learned about audio and visual aids that are used here and plan to use the methods."

Using many concepts in the classroom was something new to some of the teachers. Amra, an assistant manager for training, said her lesson plan might be for one specific subject, such as math or science, but she would like to see other subjects incorporated into the course, such as art.

The group talked about several differences such as the amount of resources each educational system had. Pakistan has very few private schools and many of the schools in cities are better than those in the rural areas.

Zaki said the United States was more advanced in using technology and has significantly more resources than Pakistan. He observed that Americans use computers for research and writing, while Pakistanis use them for sound and video purposes.

"America has many resources to teach, while sometimes schools in Pakistan have limited resources, especially use of computers," said Zaki. "Pakistan has computers, but the problem is not many people are educated in using them."

The group learned a significant amount about conflict resolution during the visit. In Pakistan, they expressed how there is no formal counseling programs in the schools. They said they liked some of the methods they learned during their trip and plan to implement them into their system.

There were several things in American culture that surprised the group of educators. They noticed that children are involved in many different programs at a young age, which they believe helps their development. Also the road systems and cleanliness of the area were the two biggest things they pointed out in comparing the two cultures.

"I'm very much inspired by your cleaning habits," said Khalid, a deputy district officer from Charsadda. "When people are crossing [the road], [drivers] stop their cars and I'm very inspired by that."

All of them expressed that they were happy to have traveled to New Hampshire since they gained a lot of knowledge and learned about the culture and people here.

"They are learning some of the way we organize our education system here and bringing it over there," said Williams. "These 20 people will go back and train other teachers. They all firmly believe that the single most important thing that will change their living challenges is through education and this program is a resource and opportunity to make that change."