A Study of the Declining Status of Teacher Education in Pakistan

Abstract

Quality human resource development is the major focus of all developed and developing nations of the world, and the only mean to achieve this is the education only, which needs quality teachers. It is well accepted that no system of education can be better than its teachers. It is globally accepted that teacher is the central figure in the education system of any society and it has become a near proverbial that no nation can rise above the level of its teachers. The research has also evidenced that student achievement is linked to the quality of teachers. The Education Department of the major province of Punjab has stopped the pre-service training of the teachers in all its colleges. It has recently recruited more than five thousand untrained teachers, as the department was not satisfied with the performance of its trained teachers and training procedures. It is a no denying fact that in Pakistan status and quality of teacher and teaching is gradually and continuously on the decline. This study was conducted in the existing scenario. The major objective of the study was to identify and find out the causes of decline and unsatisfactory performance of trained teachers in the historical perspective of teacher education in Pakistan. The study was qualitative in nature. A purposive sample of 20 working & retried senior Teacher Educators and 10 senior officers of four provincial Bureaus of Education including Sindh, KPK, Baluchistan, AJK and DSD Punjab were included in the study. The sample was divided into two equal groups of 15 participants each representing each category and area. The data was collected through 12 rounds of focus group discussions of both groups with the rotation of members between groups after two meetings. The results of the study revealed the discontinuation of residential teacher training, elimination of aptitude test for admission, the involvement of private institutions in teacher education, merit-less affiliation by universities, distance mode of teacher education, Poor general education and political interference as significant factors for the decline of teachers and teaching in the country. The recommendations included mandatory aptitude test for pre-service entrance and teacher licensing, Stopping affiliation of private teacher education colleges.