KARACHI: The closing session of the first two-day conference on teacher education titled ‘Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century: Synergies and Challenges’ organised by Durbeen at the Government Elementary College of Education (GECE) in Hussainabad on Friday had panellists look at teaching and why it was no longer a profession of choice.

Moderating the discussion, CEO of Durbeen Salma Alam set the ball rolling by pointing out that the problems with teaching in Pakistan were complex and could not be fixed by just raising the salaries of teachers.

Unilever CEO Amer Paracha pointed out that it was not just in Pakistan, but the teaching profession was losing attraction globally. “Teaching is a profession associated with prestige and respect, but it is now commoditised and commercialised. There is a need for rebranding of teaching but as a nation and a country have we worked on rebranding teaching?” He asked.

“Do doctors choose to be doctors because they like patients? No, it is because the profession is a noble one and gets you respect in society. It also pays well,” he said.

Founder and CEO of Tabadlab Mosharraf Zaidi said that teaching was a profession and not a core social function. “This function begins with your parents, your elders, who are your principal teachers. But we now have a social expectation from teachers. And so teachers run polio campaigns, work during elections and they also get shot at. But just because you pay them salaries and pensions doesn’t mean that you own teachers.

Experts discuss teachers’ and education issues at Durbeen conference

“Then the social measures are also changing as more and more people are leaving their homes after getting married. Their children don’t have the same relationship with their grandparents, their aunts and uncles,” he said.

Geo director Muaaz Ahsan said that the best minds did not want to be associated with teaching. “You need to attract value to a profession. But that value doesn’t have to be money. The value needs to be associated with. Unfortunately, we as a society have learned to throw money at problems,” he said, adding that sending your children to a great school is not enough because all children cannot attend the same school and they may come to harm those who have what they didn’t have.

He also said that a government school teacher gets three times the salary of a private school teacher and still even a low cost private school has better learning outcomes than a government school.

Salma Ahmed Alam spoke about Durbeen’s six-year-old journey and their free of cost four-year BEd (Hons) programme for girls who are passionate about raising the standard of education offered by government schools. The cutting-edge programme developed by the University of Karachi features innovations in pedagogy and assessment brought in by the University of Helsinki and Durbeen. “Graduates are committed to using their education and experience in government schools, where they will work for at least three years upon graduation,” she said.

“Durbeen is also working with the Sindh Government to establish a licensing exam as a measure of the quality of teachers being hired. This licensing exam is being jointly developed by the Sindh Teachers Education Development Authority (STEDA), the Aga Khan University-Institute of Educational Development (AKU-IED) and Durbeen. The intent behind this effort is to ensure that qualified and capable teachers are inducted and entrants are incentivised to seek professional training before applying for teaching jobs in government schools. Graduates of the BEd program offered by GECE, Hussainabad and the other teacher training colleges in Sindh will take this exam and successful applicants will be recruited to 700 posts created especially for this purpose,” she added.

Sindh Minister for Education Sardar Ali Shah delivered the closing address.

He almost made the entire audience fall off their seats laughing when he narrated how when he announced somewhere about licensing for teachers and some news channel gave the ‘breaking news’ that the Sindh government was issuing weapon licences to teachers.

“I can only say it happened due to lack of education,” he said.

About Durbeen, he said that the public-private partnership was heading towards excellence in teaching. “When I became the education minister in 2018, I looked at all the laws passed by the national and provincial assemblies that had anything to do with education. I came upon laws passed as far back as in 2011, which had not been implemented as yet. When I questioned this, I was removed from my position for two years. Returning back, I sat down with Shehzad Roy of Zindagi Trust and Salma Alam of Durbeen to establish a licensing exam as a measure of the quality of teachers being hired. This licensing exam is being jointly developed by STEDA, the AKU-IED and Durbeen,” he said.

Mohammad Ali Tabba, Chief Executive Officer of Lucky Cement Ltd, and Chairman of Habib Bank Limited Sultan Ali Allana also spoke.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2023