Published Articles on ‘Teacher and Teacher Education’
Redirecting Focus to Teacher Commitment
Teacher commitment needs to be focused on as the first step in reforming the education system in Pakistan. Merely ensuring the presence of a teacher in a classroom means little unless the teacher has prerequisite skills and the motivation to perform. It is time we focused on teachers with a positive lens of improving their working conditions and training, and providing them with adequate opportunities to improve their skill sets.
Is Teaching a Profession of Choice?
The low prestige attached to teaching is an issue that has been considered trivial in the past. Considering the shortage of quality teachers, it is important that policies are adopted at the government level to attract competent people towards the profession. People need to be offered career and professional development opportunities that at least meet their expectations, if not exceed them.
Teachers without Borders
It is time that the teaching profession in Pakistan becomes a profession of learning. Professional learning is more than just about courses and workshops. It is about continuously learning and improving one’s craft. It is time that developing countries like ours adopt re-engineered professional development models for teachers, like online learning communities available on social media.
Teacher Training in the Private Sector
Great teachers help create great students. Research affirms that one of the most important factors contributing to student success is the quality of the teaching imparted by teachers. It is time that we as parents, policy advocates and researchers start demanding continuous professional learning for teachers — professional development that is ongoing, collaborative and relevant to the needs of students.
Investing in Teacher Quality
Despite increasing budgets for teacher training, the effectiveness of these budgets remains questionable. A major portion of these are consumed in recurrent expenditures and there is not much actually spent on training programmes. Besides this problem, there are issues related to curriculum, duration and sustainability of teacher training programmes. All these issues need to be addressed for these programmes to have any impact on teaching quality.
The State of Teacher Recruitment in Pakistan
The starting point to improve the quality of teaching is to make the recruitment process transparent and selection merit based. However, the state of teacher recruitment in Pakistan has not been encouraging in the past as political interference, nepotism, ghost teachers and nontransparent practices dominate the process. It is encouraging to note that recent efforts have been made in all the provinces to improve matters.