KARACHI: “I will not teach a curriculum but a human being … I will treat my students as if they are my own children … I will celebrate diversity in my students, and teach the children of rich and poor, of different ethnicities, religions, cast and creed in an equitable manner …”

These were some of the lines from the oath taken on Saturday, with pride and sincerity, by 28 graduating teachers of the four-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree programme offered at the Government Elementary College of Education (GECE), Hussainabad.

They were the second batch of teachers to have successfully completed the programme under the umbrella of Durbeen.

Durbeen is a non-profit organisation, established with the long-term goal of improving public schools in Pakistan through reforms in teacher education. To achieve this objective, Durbeen is preparing high-quality government teachers through public-private partnerships at the GECE.

The graduating teachers of this college are being placed in select government schools, under Durbeen’s management, where they are working to ensure a high quality of education for children from all backgrounds.

In March 2019, Durbeen was awarded the management of GECE, Hussainabad, by the Sindh government with the goal to make it the leading teacher education institution of Pakistan.

Last year saw the first batch of teachers passing out from here and this year more teachers will be joining the force.

While speaking about the programme, Durbeen’s CEO Salma A. Alam said that they had a vision to make teaching the top-most career of Pakistan.

She also said that the teaching licence test, which was introduced for the first time in Pakistan just last year, makes it a requirement now for only BEd qualified graduates are eligible to take the license exam and if they are successful they will be inducted at the grade 16 level whereas all teacher inductions were done at the grade 14 level.

“We were hopeful that such initiatives will attract the best and the brightest in our youth to opt for the teaching profession,” she said.

She also said that in 2026, they would also be coming up with Durbeen’s own graduate programme, which was being designed in collaboration with the University of Oxford to develop teacher educators for government colleges across Pakistan.

Currently, the degrees for the programme are awarded by the University of Karachi. In April 2019, the University of Karachi declared GECE, Hussainabad as its pilot project thereby authorising Durbeen to introduce innovations and global best practices in the curriculum and assessment system there.

Speaking on the occasion, KU Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi said that the future of Pakistan was about quality in education.

“As a nation we have to work together to create an environment of tolerance along with an environment of equal opportunity,” he said, adding that he greatly appreciated the initiatives taken by Durbeen and the two people behind it, namely Salma Alam and Shehzad Roy.

Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah, who has been with the project from the very beginning, said that it was a great moment of pride for him to be witnessing the second graduating of teachers from GECE.

“From 1947 till now, we have been talking about the decay and deterioration of our education system but we have not been able to determine the reason behind it,” he said.

“In Pakistan today, there are around 26 million students out of school of whom nearly 5.5 million are from Sindh, 12 million from Punjab, 4.9 million from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Being a state we should have thought long ago whether the policies which we are coming up with for the improvement of our education system are really tangible and sustainable?” The minister said.

“There were thousands of teachers, who were BEd and MEd degree holders, when we initiated the teachers licensing programme. But when they sat for the test, only 600 qualified out of 4,000 candidates. The result was alarming. It drew a big question mark before our education system,” he said.

“The teacher is a nation builder. It is a Herculean task to train teachers. You may build beautiful school buildings but what good are those schools going to be without good teachers?” Sardar Shah asked.

“There is a dearth of quality teachers here and there are 65,000 vacancies in the education system that need to be filled. But these vacancies need to be filled by quality teachers. Not every child in Pakistan can attend elitist schools, where the teachers are great. We also want the children of government schools to get the same education the children attending KGS receive. If you don’t care about the education of the poor children, they will come back as bandits who loot you,” he warned.

Finally, the degrees were awarded to the graduates with special medals awarded to those who passed with distinction. Asna Amin, who passed with a 3.8 CGPA, was awarded gold medals for ‘Best Action Research’ and ‘Best Performance in Teaching Practicum’. Sahra Iqbal, with a 3.79 CGPA, and Minhal Abbas Bangash, with a 3.72 CGPA, also received medals. Meanwhile, Zenab Moiz was named ‘Faculty of the Year 2023-24’.

The valedictorian, Sahra Iqbal, recalled their struggles during the past four years while thanking their teaching faculty for kindness and understanding that helped them carry forward the torch of teaching.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2025