By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer

In the next few years, there is a need to provide an additional 2.1 million teachers in South Asia. There are a number of ways that this can be done. Implementing the nine proposals below would in fact increase the number of teachers without sacrificing the quality of education in primary schools in Pakistan and across South Asia.

First of all, in teacher training colleges, double shifts can be introduced and more teacher training institutes can be established.
Also, if incoming teachers have a higher general academic level, the time allocated for their pre-service training can be reduced and can replaced with alternative opportunities for training.

There can also be conversion courses put in place which transfer teachers to subjects where there is a shortage of trained teachers.
In addition, primary education can be offered as a vocational course in universities with a degree awarded on completion of the program.

Second, primary school teachers' minimum level of general academic education should be raised so that they will have at least the minimum required level of subject knowledge.

Generally speaking, primary teachers should be required to complete 12 years of general education prior to their initial training. Currently, the minimum number of years of general education needed before teacher training can begin varies across South Asia from nine to 12 years.

The only exception to this might be in the case of women entering the field of teaching from rural areas, where there is a severe shortage of female teachers and no suitable candidates can be found.

Third, the curriculum in teacher training courses must be revised to impart proper teaching methods, not the current emphasis in classrooms of more time, more subjects and more courses.

A recent study conducted in Pakistan identified the key weaknesses of primary school teachers. They rarely use systematic logical sequences in teaching; do not organize available time for teaching to maximize time students spend on a task and they do not reinforce learning through feedback. They also give hardly any opportunities to children to develop into independent learners.
Teachers must learn diverse ways of teaching and managing the classroom.

Fourth, pre-service teacher education must be practical and should focus on imparting to teachers the art of teaching in an actual classrooms rather than studying textbook theories in training colleges. In addition, on the job teacher training must use this method as well.

Fifth, primary school teachers must be given more respect and prestige financially and socially. Practically speaking, this means increasing teacher salaries, improving work conditions and creating better opportunities for advancement for primary school teachers on the basis of class performance rather than seniority, by creating positions for motivated primary teachers within the primary school system rather than within secondary schools and establishing more openings for primary teachers as principals, district monitors and teacher trainers.

Sixth, more female teachers. There is happening slowly. In Pakistan, 47 percent of new graduates are female, though the ratios are as low as 14 and 25 percent in the provinces of Balochistan and the NWFP respectively. In addition, many of these graduates are the product of special 'crash program' units attached to middle schools where the quality of training is often not very high

As mentioned above, recruiting more female teachers may mean lowering entry standards for female primary school teachers temporarily. This must be combined with intense in-service training.

Ameliorating school facilities and working conditions in rural areas would also encourage female teachers to take up jobs in such areas.

A further incentive for female teachers could exist if the issue of harassment is addressed. Anecdotal evidence indicates that female teachers in both rural and urban areas of Pakistan are harassed by senior teachers, principals, district-level monitoring staff and educational supervisors.

Seven, the local community must, as much as possible, hire teachers from their area. There are two advantages to this. The first is that it reduces the risk of teacher absenteeism, since teachers will not be posted to places where they do not live. Second, the local community is more attuned to the strengths and weaknesses of the teachers they recruit.

Eighth, giving the local community more control over teacher selection can also raise teacher quality. Concerned and aware parents are one of the most crucial tools in making sure that teachers do their job. This is because unlike outside bodies to which teachers may be accountable (i.e. education monitoring teams or school inspectors), parents have a vested interest in ensuring their children are taught by good teachers and their involvement often leads to better quality teaching.

Finally, governments can build partnerships with NGOs and other civil society organizations that have successfully provided primary teacher training to avoid reinventing the wheel while supporting such initiatives for the benefit of Pakistan's children and future.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/17/2002 3:44:57 PM

Readers' Comment

Mohammad Faiq: 2/7/2006 7:54:59 PM
Strategies for training teachers By Mohammad Faiq TEACHERS are the key in effecting change in any education system. An incompetent teacher cannot make much of a difference even if he is teaching in a modern classroom and is using a good textbook. Training and professional development is crucial for identifying, developing, utilizing, and recognizing the abilities of teachers. One cannot be a good teacher without having certain skills and applications and these are usually taught to pre-service teachers in education courses at the college and university level. However, knowledge of such courses is of little use unless what is learnt through them is applied in the classroom. In Pakistan, teacher education means completion of a certificate or degree programme. Teacher education institutions generally use the so-called ‘transmission model’ (where the learner is mostly passive) of teaching and therefore fail to prepare teachers who are able to engage students meaningfully in learning. The courses offered in such teacher training programmes are knowledge based, inflexible, decontextualized and ambiguous. Student teachers are usually lectured in rigidly structured classrooms where the basic workplace challenges of the future teachers are not or very rarely addressed. There is no guarantee that the skills learned during these courses will be transferred to the school classroom when the learner graduates and becomes a teacher. Hence, in many cases the graduates are not able to put into practice the theories they learnt during the training. This leads new teachers to adopt traditional methods of teaching. They can neither reflect on their problems nor can explore the issues related to day-to-day classroom life. As a result, after a few years these teachers sit comfortably under the shadow of their problems and challenges. They usually quote their own schoolteachers and blame the students and system for their own failures. Staff rooms of Pakistani schools are full of such teachers who tend to blame everyone else — students, parents, textbooks and examination boards — but themselves for whatever ails the system. This may surprise some readers but a majority of degree/certificate requirements met by students of the certificate in teaching, or bachelor’s or master’s in education programmes are not related to learning about teaching or learning how to teach. Consequently, newly-inducted do little to change the status quo. Much of the content of such courses is formal knowledge of teaching and is based on unrealistic goals and high expectations of learners. Teachers must be prepared to demonstrate an ability to teach in various settings, to reflect about their work and to work with other colleagues in the improvement of teaching. All this requires not only good knowledge of the subject but also the ability to think critically. Hence, the purpose of a good teacher education programme should be to help them acquire such skills. Classroom teaching has two functions for a teacher. First, it is a place to teach students. Second, and perhaps equally important, is that it serves as place for a teacher to learn about teaching and to acquire more knowledge. It is important that teacher trainers (those who conduct teacher education courses) are good at facilitating this among their students. The trainer should encourage his or her teacher students to question the strategies and literature used in the training. Acquiring formal knowledge to teach and learning to teach are two different things. Practical demonstration of boiling an egg is different from telling people how an egg should be boiled. Hence, learning by doing is the one generally agreed and essential principle of teacher education. Students who will go on to become teachers need to be given practical opportunities to demonstrate and practice their teaching skills. Learning to teach is a continuous process of reflection, critique, analysis and practice. Peer coaching, cooperative learning, inquiry-based learning and mentoring are commonly used in western universities in this regard. Peer coaching is a process used to facilitate student teachers help each other achieve certain goals. It has three key players: two learners working toward some specified objectives and the faculty supervisor. The latter is responsible for training the learners with reference to the peer coaching process, and works with them to ensure that the process works well. For example, student teachers plan lessons in pairs and go to schools to teach together. One teaches while the other observes. After a class both discuss the lesson’s strengths and weaknesses. The next day the observer and teacher switch roles and follow this with another discussion of the lesson’s observations. The supervisor then questions both the learners and gives his feedback or suggests reading material for further improvement. Both learners write one individual and one joint reflection on each lesson. At the end of the week, if the student teachers have done well in achieving their objectives, they receive reward for their hard work. ‘Critical friendship’ is another commonly used strategy to educate new teachers. By becoming ‘critical friends’, learners open doors to each other without blaming, naming or shaming each other and also act as mutual role models. Research has shown that a friendship bond can be a significant element in critically analyzing classroom issues and challenges of fellow teachers. A ‘critical friend’ is a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critique of a person’s work as a friend. A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward. These professional friends are advocates for the success of each other’s work. For example, after teaching in a class student teachers sit together and share experiences with each other. They ask questions like what happened, why did it happen, how to make it different and so on. One student teacher tells the story of the classroom happenings and others take notes. Then they ask questions for further clarification and give appropriate feedback. Critical friendship is a forum for the student teachers where shared values, interconnectedness and an ethic of care among student teachers is emphasized and implicit assumptions of teaching and schooling practices are challenged for the purpose of changing conditions. In critical friendships student teachers learn to reflect on practices, know how to investigate practice, know the role of dilemmas in learning, and how theory and practice refine each other Friendly support and critical reflection are two vital components of critical friendship Cooperative learning is another strategy, which is used in teaching future teachers. Learners work in small groups to ensure their own learning and the learning of all others in the group. The group should be as heterogeneous as possible, first according to academic abilities, and then on the basis of ethnic backgrounds, race, and gender. Students should not be allowed to form their groups based on friendship or cliques. When groups are maximally heterogeneous and the other essential elements are met, student teachers tend to interact and achieve in ways and at levels that are rarely found in other instructional strategies. They also tend to become tolerant of diverse viewpoints, to consider others’ thoughts and feelings in depth, and seek more support and clarification of others’ positions. Essentially, tasks are structured so that students must depend upon one another for their personal, teammates’, and group’s success in completing the assigned tasks and mastering the targeted content and skills. To work together as a group, student teachers need to engage in such interactive abilities as leadership, trust building, conflict-management, constructive criticism, encouragement, compromise and negotiation. Students spend time after the group tasks have been completed to systematically reflect upon how they worked together as a team in such areas as (a) how well they achieved their group goals, (b) how they helped each other comprehend the content, resources, and task procedures, (c) how they used positive behaviours and attitudes to enable each individual and the entire group as a group to be successful, and (d) what they need to do next time to make their groups even more successful. In some universities and colleges of education inquiry based-learning is used to educate student teachers. Inquiry-based learning is deeply rooted in the belief that human beings are natural inquirers and that this inquiry is at the heart of all learning. This method is used with student teachers and is designed to give them an opportunity to personally experience the process of learning to teach through inquiry. The inquiry process is driven by one’s own curiosity, wonder, interest or passion to understand an observation or solve a problem regarding teaching. A growing trend in the field of teacher education is mentoring. Mentors are provided to student teachers for professional assistance and advice. On-the-job nurturing and support by mentors can accelerate success and effectiveness among new teachers. Elements of a successful mentoring programme include the development of a viable relationship between beginning teacher and mentor, the assignment of a mentor who possesses specific knowledge and skills, and the use of an accountability system. Effective mentoring can lead to an increase in the competence levels of new teachers. While mentors tend to have their own ideas about mentoring because of previous experiences, the novice teacher may be uncertain about the mentoring process. Differences in expectations and viewpoints can result in stress and a dysfunctional relationship between mentor and the new teacher. Knowledge of adult education principles can be extremely valuable for mentors. During the mentoring sessions, assessment of classroom teaching, constructive feedback and sharing, and modelling of sound pedagogical techniques help both the student teacher and mentor in their professional development. Both the mentor and student teacher are accountable for the progress of the process. This accountability process can take the form of ongoing, standardized, written reports by both the mentor and the new teacher to be submitted to a designated person. While mentors provide support and understanding, they also challenge student teachers to use their talents to struggle for excellence in their teaching Furthermore, mentors challenge student teachers to become agents of change, transforming schools instead of maintaining the status quo. The writer teaches at the Provincial Institute of Teacher Education, NWFP, in Peshawar. Email: teachereducator2003@yahoo.com

© 2004, Human Development Foundation. All rights reserved.
1350 Remington Road, Suite W, Schaumburg, Il. 60173
Toll Free: (800) 705-1310 | Email: info@yespakistan.com | Privacy Policy