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It is 2013 in the 21st Century, and Pakistan citizenry is in the throes of raising a hue and cry about making politicians declare an ‘education emergency’ in the country. People have woken up to the fact that it is education that has to be the foundation stone for Pakistan’s progress, socially and economically.
Furthermore, experience has taught Pakistanis that prioritising education has never been the business of the state since it gained independence in 1947. The public sector in education has failed to deliver in both quantity and quality over the past 50 years and private schools and NGOs have been unable to fill the void in both quantity and quality as well.
If ‘educational change’ for the better is the buzz word, then the nation’s main concern is to identify the area where quality education springs from. Michael Fullen, Canadian author of The New Meaning of Educational Change which is in its third edition now, has come up with a simple factor that helps or hinders educational change.
He says that ‘Educational change depends on what teachers do or think — it is as simple and complex as that. It would all be so easy if we could legislate changes in thinking.’
Thus, educational change in order to upgrade and standardise any system of education anywhere in the world lies in the quality, dedication, commitment and professionalism of its teacher workforce.
However, Pakistanis over the years have rarely questioned the efficacy of a trained teacher for their children. Schools have been chosen for the facilities they offered or if they were part of the status quo while the masses in Pakistan have struggled to find an affordable school and if it was beyond their means, left their children ignorant and uneducated.
Hardly anyone will rate a school for the high standard of teaching that it offers. It is presumed that if a school charges an exorbitant fee, the quality of their teachers is taken for granted. Unfortunately, that is not the case for two very simple reasons. Firstly, those who enter the teaching profession take up the job as a necessity and, particularly if no other profession is open to them. Secondly, teachers are hired on their academic qualifications (be that a degree or a Masters) on the premise that anyone can teach.
This mindset over the years has fossilised into an ‘anything goes syndrome’ as long as one can ensure that a teacher is present in the classroom. Schools run by NGOs will hire teachers from the same level of educational background as the students they teach. Yes, these teachers are educated enough to handle a class in the literal sense but have no clue about what proper and qualitative educational standards stand for. Government school teachers are hired on their outdated BEd and MEd qualifications from government training institutes.
Private schools hire teachers from diverse educational backgrounds but at the end of the day, the compromise is on quality which is basically unavailable for hire. For all intents and purposes, hiring of teachers is perhaps the easiest to accomplish. Look at a degree and hire on the spot. The second assumption is that the teacher will learn on the job and it does not really matter that after a few months even though the incompetence of a teacher is noted, he or she is not fired. There are very few teachers all over Pakistan who continue to teach in their respective schools with commitment and dedication to their profession.
You can build a school building in the minimum amount of time, hire whatever human resource is available as teachers and you are in the business of educating the young and impressionable. The population explosion in Pakistan makes your task easier as there will always be enough students entering the portals of a school. The facilities to offer are basic amenities and can easily be acquired for running a school. Nevertheless, a qualitative educational system anywhere in the world depends on the quality of its human resource to service it and statistically, teachers dominate the workforce in any country.
In the case of Pakistan, the teacher workforce has little significance attached to it. Other more attractive and lucrative professions such as medicine, engineering, business, civil services and armed forces are popular and are taken up as first choices by young people when they decide on a profession. The basic underlying reason for education taking a nosedive as far as quality is concerned is the fact that the teaching profession is no longer regarded as a worthy profession to adopt in Pakistan.
If educational change or as the buzz word for politicians to declare an ‘education emergency’ is to be taken seriously, then the change has to start with raising the quality of human resource for teachers. Next, that standardised human resource has to be trained to enter the profession so that quality education can be on offer for all Pakistani children irrespective of their economic background. A massive campaign to motivate young professionals to enter the teaching profession has to be undertaken with catchy slogans such as ‘Build Pakistan — Teach’ or ‘Educate Pakistan — Teach’ with enumeration of incentives in pay scales and career progression.
Then the arduous task of training these young people with a qualitative curriculum will have to be done. For that, as many as five to six large institutes of education need to be set up in all the provinces with a uniform curriculum and with smaller branches all over Pakistan. A short course of six months can be offered initially which can be made into a year-long course two years down the road. Every prospective teacher must do this course and be certified by an autonomous body to become a teacher.
Are we demanding uniformity in the system? Then, it must be ensured that every child in Pakistan whether in the public, private, NGO or any other kind of school is taught by a professionally qualified, educationally sound, certified teacher.
The writer is an educational consultant based in Lahore.
