Recent efforts under the Education Sector Reforms of the Musharraf government (2000-2008) made strides in updating the curricula of school subjects; initiating a new textbook policy based on the learning outcomes of the new curricula; a private examination board offering a transparent and quality secondary/ higher secondary examination within Pakistan; and, uplifting Higher Education in the country.

However, despite $75 million USAID grant for the pre-service STEP programme as well as World Bank expertise to provide assistance and research for upgrading the system in a number of areas, the effect in teacher education has been minimal and isolated.

The problem to address simultaneously is curriculum improvement and teacher education. Will the teachers be cognizant of the changes to the new pedagogy of the curriculum or will the brand new curriculum goals continue to be taught in the same old way of rote learning? Yes, one hears of ‘active learning’ approaches and workshops being held sporadically to highlight these. Instructions are given to teachers about the ‘new methodology’ in the workshops. Moreover, ‘teacher training’ is now also being offered privately by individuals or organizations as well as under World Bank initiatives and community based projects.

A Directorate of Staff Development was established under the ‘Parha Likha Punjab’ campaign for teacher development. The same workshop concept was applied and teachers brought in, given presentations on new aspects of teaching and then were allowed to go back. Later, it seems that there was no monitoring of these teachers to gauge how they were applying the workshop experience in the classroom.

There are a number of reasons for the continued impasse in this crucial area of teacher education for improving the quality of education in the country. I would like to quote a Pakistani in Australia, Shoaib Munim, describing an intervention by the University of Sydney for a Pakistani University:-

“Yet things can change if an effort is made to change 'mindsets'. I presume that while preparing this document, the University of Sydney quite naturally though, took it for granted that universities are places where knowledge is created and nourished, while the Pakistani university system assumes that universities are places where knowledge is imported and then transferred on to the next generation. This gives rise to a culture of passive learning, where students take lectures religiously. Cross questioning and challenging of concepts is rare and in some cases even forbidden. All what the students are interested in is getting high scores. For this purpose 'passive learning' comes in handy. Mediocrity breeds mediocrity, and that is exactly what’s happening to our entire education system.”

The International Reading Association’s 2008 report on the “State of Teacher Education in the Asia-Pacific Region” takes just three pages to reveal the statistics and areas of teacher education in Pakistan whereas even a country like Afghanistan takes up nine pages.

The minimal extent of 120 public and 21 private teacher education colleges still being run on colonial lines is all Pakistan has to show for educating its teachers.

However, the report describes the state of teacher education in Pakistan in these points:-

1. The teacher training institutes are facing budgetary and financial constraints. They face an acute shortage of facilities such as buildings, equipment, furniture, learning aids, library books, and other reading materials.

2. The examination system is highly defective. Teacher absenteeism, defective management, lack of supervision and accountability practices are some of the major issues that need to be appropriately addressed in teacher education programmes.

What then, should be Pakistan’s vision for its teacher education? First of all, mindset will have to be changed from a passive learning mode to an active learning mode. In terms of pedagogy, it has been observed that teachers, like students, learn best in an active manner especially in professional development programmes. The teachers must be given the chance to experiment, process, reflect, discover and construct their own expert knowledge.

In terms of making the change to a relevant 21st Century pedagogy, the baseline is relatively easy and basic. The main descriptors of a quality education are students who can demonstrate academic achievement with strong personal growth.

A research study shows that teachers whose students meet these criteria have certain characteristics in common.

These include knowledge of the relevant subject matter; use of a range of pedagogies appropriate for the content; competence in the language of instruction; recognition and response to the needs and interests of their students, and development of a strong sense of ethics and professionalism and commitment to teaching.

Pakistan faces a multiple challenge in the case of teacher education. It needs quality teachers and the sooner the better. The teacher force already in service is trained to teach in the tradition of knowledge accumulation through rote learning of facts which are then regurgitated in examinations. This approach has to change but training workshops and outdated teacher education syllabi are not making much of a difference.

Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) proposition of a 4 year BS Ed is going to take time to produce the teachers in a new mould. Also, those who wish to enter the job market will not wish to take such a long route. A strategy has to be evolved that in a year or so a concerted effort is made to upgrade the number of teachers in service as well as bringing up a new crop of teachers.

This can be done in the following way:-

*While the new teacher education is being done in a pre-service, hopefully, compulsory certification course over one year, the same can be offered to in service teachers in afternoon/evening classes and during the summer break. In this way the whole system will be acquiring the new methodology of teaching.

*The more academically and professional minded can take the 4 year BS Ed and M.Ed classes for positions higher up the ladder i.e Civil Service (Education Depart-ment) and leadership and management of schools and colleges.

*The curriculum for a pre-service course of one year can be made using the new parameters with a theoretical and a practical component. It should include sound language acquisition, sound conceptual subject knowledge, learner centred pedagogy, reflection as a tool to better teaching and a supportive “teamwork/collaborative” culture to raise morale and commitment to this profession.

*The ‘learning by doing’ pedagogy must apply to teacher education and assessment should be done through observation and critical appraisal. If at all a four year B Ed is contemplated, then in Pakistan’s context, the first two years must lay an all round foundation in critical thinking skills through study of core subjects before the upcoming teachers are introduced to educational subjects in the third and fourth years.

*Under General Musha-rraf’s government, nine universities were being set up by foreign countries under HEC (Pakistan was to bear the expenses) but the security situation prevented foreign faculty to come and work in Pakistan. Some of the infrastructure was set up but then the funds were withdrawn. Nine or ten universities like these must be put to good use for the important task of teacher training.

One hopes that with the promise of a five year commitment of 1.5 billion dollar US aid to Pakistan per annum, a suitable amount will be spent in the next five years to structure and execute a feasible approach to modify teacher education.

A strong political commitment is necessary for education to be

treated on an emergency basis so that Pakistan becomes one of the civilised nations of the world. n

The writer is an educational consultant based in Lahore.