Quality education: Training programme for teachers leaves some trumped

Officials say there is no proper mechanism in place.

PESHAWAR:

Millions of dollars have been spent on the teachers training programme in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), but officials claim it has not yielded the desired results.

The project was launched by the provincial government with support from various donor organisations, including Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Department for International Development (DFID), German NGO GIZ, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

Through the programme, the Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers Education (DCTE) K-P aimed to improve capacity building capabilities in schools across the 25 districts of the province.

An official of the education department, however, said there was no proper mechanism to train the 130,000 teachers working in the province.

He alleged teachers were selected through favouritism, adding that some had attended the training sessions only five to eight times, while others were not even aware of the programme.



According to this official, who wished to remain anonymous, teachers with MA and MSc degrees were trained alongside those with FA and FSc qualifications. “Training imparted to an MSc qualified individual is lost on the FA/FSc persons, who end up wasting their time.”

He added there is no monitoring system in place to assess whether teachers use the skills they acquire.

Ali Akbar, a middle school teacher in Peshawar, said training sessions were very fruitful for some, but others with lower qualifications struggled with the material. Trainers should categorise and work on capacity building, he argued.

DCTE Deputy Director Faridullah Khan, on the other hand, said the directorate was the most important public institution responsible for training teachers.

Faridullah claimed it has trained 80,000 primary school teachers and 20,000 middle school teachers in four subjects including English, math, general science and social studies.

With support from DCTE’s annual development scheme, the directorate was identifying missing facilities in schools across 16 districts, he added.

Faridullah said it was the responsibility of district officials to ensure teachers who show interest are selected for the training.

Programme Manager for Peace Education and Development Foundation, Tariq Hayat Khan stressed training was essential in bringing about a change of attitude in the entire teaching body. “Quality teachers can provide quality education and produce quality students.”

He said the government should allocate funds for the purpose in the annul development fund, adding authorities should also enact policies which encourage international organisations to contribute.

Hayat maintained training teachers was a more pressing matter than constructing new schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.