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As part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4), the international education community has vowed to reach universal primary and secondary education by 2030. At this time, however, approximately 263 million children are not in school around the globe and an additional 9.8 million primary teachers and 22.3 million secondary teachers are required to fill this gap. (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2016).
Pakistan contributes significantly to this number. In 2018, it was reported that 22.84 million children are out of school in Pakistan (AEPAM), and that the situation is worsening due to a sustained increase in the country’s school-age population. If urgent action is not taken, Pakistan will remain far from closing the universal primary education gap by 2030. (UNESCO UIS, 2016).
A transformative shift from the MDGs to the SDGs, however, was a call for improvement not just in access, but in quality education. Yet, only 9% of teachers are trained in Sindh and nationwide, over 40% of teachers have never received training (Tribune, 2016). How can recruiting teachers without sustainable, systemic reform in teacher training and professional development help Pakistan achieve SDG 4 targets? This is not of lack of trying: experts on Pakistan’s education policy and reform such as Drs. Faisal Bari and Jishnu Das assert that in the last ten years, a multitude of reforms have been implemented without success or progress, (Das goes to the extent of challenging colleagues and students to name any reform in the books and he’d prove that it has been tried, tested and failed in Pakistan).
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As far as teachers are concerned, areas where reform has been attempted is not limited to pre-service and in-service training. It includes teacher entry requirements, teacher monitoring systems, transfer and promotion systems, as well as issues of teacher absenteeism. Despite all this effort at revamping the system, experts are of the belief that it is quite a ‘puzzle’ that data from both the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), and the government’s own examination results show that there has been no progress in student learning. (Bari, 2017). In this article, I call into question the familiar frame through which we know and understand failed teacher training in Pakistan. Has teacher training ever really been the government’s priority or does it get lost in the maze of obstacles in Pakistan’s educational landscape?
Teacher Training Cannot Be a One-Off Activity
With the introduction of teachers’ licensing and the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) 2009, the laser focus of Pakistan’s pre-service and in-service training has been of access to one-off capacity building and professional development. (Rizwan, 2015). However, the quality of this teacher education has never been of much concern to the government. Much of the training is overly theoretical, inconsistent, and ineffective. (Ahmed, 2012).
Due to the fact that follow up coaching adds to expenses, and also requires additional systemic planning, most teacher training is not continuous and thus fails to change pedagogical techniques or teacher knowledge (World Bank Report, 2018). In order to be effective, Professional Development, specifically when it is in-service, requires considerable time and resources, needs to be individually purposed around a particular pedagogical skill and must be accompanied by regular follow up. Accordingly, evidence from developed countries demonstrate that practicality, specificity, and continuity are fundamental to effective teacher training. (World Bank Report, 2018).
Practicality refers to training that deploys tangible and practical classroom-based methods as opposed to theoretical frameworks. Specificity suggests that programs are most useful when they target pedagogy which is not generic but specific to a subject area (for example, how to effectively and critically teach Urdu poetry) and which moves teachers through a process of change (GPE, 2013). Continuity refers to sustained, long-term trainings rather than one-off workshops (World Bank Report, 2018).
Teacher Training Must Be Evaluated
Despite the fact that, technically, government schools in Pakistan have better qualified and better trained teachers, they are unable to compete with the country’s private schools. This cannot merely be attributed to monetary constraints on public schools as education budgets in all four provinces have literally doubled in the last ten years and millions have been spent on teacher capacity building (Bari, 2017).
The key issue is that most teacher training is unevaluated and there is little literature to verify the extent to which it is effective (Global Partnership for Education, 2013). According to a World Bank report, professional development in low-income countries tends to be ‘episodic, myopic, and often meaningless’ (WBR, 2018, p. 134).
In order to overcome this barrier, firstly standards need to be devised for institutions and organizations carrying out the training specifically in terms of subject matter, pedagogical content, assessment, communication, classroom management and learning and development (GPE, 2013) This needs to be followed by meticulous monitoring and evaluation and impact evaluation, especially with regard to its transfer into classrooms and progress in student achievement and outcomes. This can only work if it is an iterative process, supported by a team of competent, skilled and dedicated researchers.
We Must Popularize Teacher Training
Mosharraf Zaidi, campaign director of Alif Ailaan, stated that until we hold politicians accountable and get them ‘to view a dysfunctional education regime as a political liability, we will keep grasping at non-solutions.’ (Banning-Lover, R, 2015). If by ‘we’, Mr. Zaidi is referring to civil society and activists, then in the age of social media, this is arguably easier than ever before. A hashtag can be created, possibly #PakTeacherTraining, #PakPD #PakEdChat, #PakTeacherEd, #PakSDG4, the options are endless) and tweet to provincial ministers (Dr. Murad Ras, add other provincial ministers) and the Federal Minister of education, Mr. Shafqat Mahmood.
This should include encouraging them to provide updates on the progress that has or has not been made. Recently, for example, the government has partnered with USAID for a continuous professional development package which incorporates a combination of face to face trainings, teacher inquiry groups and coaching. (USAID, 2016). However, it is unclear how effective this program is or will be, nor is there any clarity on the kind of impact evaluation planned.
Additionally, this is one of a multitude of projects undertaken by USAID Pakistan, and one that gets seemingly little attention from both the government and the development organization. In a country where citizens face a constant stream of problems, it is easy to forget how significant teacher professional development is. However, the education ministry must feel that this is an issue which is important to the public and the media. If popularizing it can garner enough attention, it sends a strong message to the government that citizens are passionate about it and want to see action.
In wake of years of failed educational reform, does pigeon holing teacher training under the same banner theme prevent Pakistan from viewing it as a distinct issue and bringing it into popular discourse? It is high time that Pakistan’s citizens acknowledge that teacher training is in crisis and give it the attention and importance it deserves in order to push for more accountability, liability and information from the government. Although Pakistan maybe far from attaining SDG 4 targets, bringing in measurable, evidence based, quality teacher training is a much needed step in the right direction – one that really cannot wait.
