Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Education standards in Pakistan can only be improved by using trained and qualified teachers, said leading educationists and field experts

Educationists and field experts while addressing a dialogue session held on Friday to discuss the findings of this year’s annual status of education report discussed about improving education standards in the country.

This Year the theme of the ASER policy dialogue was “Improving Learning Outcome – Teacher Effectiveness and its impact on student achievements”. The data from the 6th edition of the annual status of education report is indeed encouraging with enrollment rates increasing in nearly all the provinces.

However, a great deal still needs to be done especially when it comes to learning levels. The aim of this Policy dialogue is to build a narrative as to what measures must be undertaken to ensure quality education for all in the country. Teachers lie at the heart of the learning enterprise and quality education for all that cannot be possible without teacher effectiveness.

Representatives of provincial education ministry, education experts, teachers and parents as stakeholders of the educational sector and with the interest to contribute insights to the upcoming education policy for 2016 attended the policy dialogue.

The event was divided into two sessions. The first session talked about the financial, technical and political barriers to teacher effectiveness where PAIS Advisor Jamil Najam as a panelist said, “Compulsory education has no campaigns, no protests”.

The session was chaired by AIOU Vice Chancellor Dr Shahid Siddiqui who concluded the session by saying that today we did not just talk about problems but also initiatives that are working.

The second session moderated by Baela Raza Jamil was based on the national education policies as these policies triggers for effective teaching and learning. Dr Sajid Ali from the Agha Khan University said, “Policies can influence teacher effectiveness at a global scale”.

Nargis Sultana from the Open Society Foundation shed light on teacher’s capabilities and their immediate needs to be addressed at higher levels. She said that only a trained and qualified teacher could enhance the students learning standards.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department Deputy Secretary Abid Ullah Kakakhel stated, “We are planning to recruit 25,000 more teachers on merit through an independent agency for schools in KP.”

Baela gave recommendations where it was concluded that policy reforms are essential to ensure teacher effectiveness as quality teachers form the basis of any viable and sustainable education system. Article 25A and Pakistan’s commitment to SDG 4 cannot be realised without well educated and trained teachers.