by Times of Oman

Omani student offered teacher assistant post in Canada

MUSCAT — Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, who is currently in Canada continuing his master’s degree programme in Computer Science, has been offered a job as a teacher assistant (TA) at Acadia University, Nova Scotia. The offer was made taking into consideration the excellent grades he scored during his first year in the university.

A TA is one who assists a teacher or a professor in conducting a class or a laboratory. In order to become a TA, one must score ‘A’ grade on a subject or a GPA (grade point average) of at least 3.50 or above.

Tariq’s main responsibility is to help conduct a lab session in the university as well as provide consultancy to the students in their Computer Science subjects.

The lab is conducted twice a week and the students are from the US, the UK, Denmark, Canada, China, Palestine, India, Russia, Lebanon and Pakistan. The students get hand-on practice, theory and practical lessons on the programming subjects using the latest visual aids and laptops using Windows XP and Linux Operating System. Apart from being a TA for the university, Tariq is a vice-president of the Arab Club in the university.

“Teaching is part of the methods I use to broaden my knowledge of information technology. My teaching experience with Oman Training Institute while I was in Oman during my vacation has boosted my ability to teach here in the university. I am planning to use my Christmas break in December to teach Java and C++ in Oman,” Tariq said