Teachers in K-P express reservations on training courses

Officials reject criticism, say courses are designed to help enhance capacity of teachers

PESHAWAR: Having managed to improve facilities, teacher and student attendance at public sector educational institutions in the province, the government is now looking to turn its attention towards improving the quality of education at these institutions through a training programme.

But teachers believe that short courses will do too little to solve issues.

Last month, in its five-year review of education reforms in the province, the education campaign Alif Ailaan, it had pointed out that while service delivery had improved, quality must be now brought into focus.

Subsequently, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government had decided to introduce teacher training in different disciplines.

The K-P Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif Khan has claimed that the government has allocated substantial sums of money for training teachers and that they had trained almost all the school teachers on their books, old and new, in different disciplines to improve the quality of education.

However, teachers in different districts of the province have complained that short training courses are insufficient to enhance the capacity of teachers, especially of those who are not as highly qualified.



A government school teacher in Mardan, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisal, claimed that the short training can only enhance the capacity of a teacher who has at least completed matriculation.

In the past, teachers used to be appointed on the basis s of personal bias or favouritism, and some just have secondary school certificates or even a simple Federal Arts (FA) qualification,” the teacher lamented, adding that the government had over time brought several changes in the curriculum and even new teaching tools.

“These teachers [hired irregularly] are unable to teach English, mathematics or science,” he added as he appreciated how the incumbent government had introduced a merit-based system with a written test through the National Testing Service (NTS) to hire new teachers.

These teachers, he believed, are more competent when compared to those inducted previously.

Another teacher from the same district too termed these training as a mere formality, arguing that a teacher cannot be trained in just three or four days. He added that only those teachers attend these training who can approach senior officials while most of the teachers remain unaware of these facilities.

Moreover, the teacher said that there is little motivation to actually attend the training and to benefit from it and claimed that most just use it as a paid vacation away from their assigned classes.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Provincial Institute for Teacher Education (PITE) Director Hakim Ullah shared that there are 10 types of training for school teachers which are currently under way.

He said that incumbent government has allocated Rs854 million for these training which aims to enhance the capacity of teachers.

He went on to claim that these training had improved the quality of education in the province.

The PITE director elaborated that the training is designed for different categories including science teachers, principals and headmasters, district education officers, newly inducted teachers and some others.

He explained that the school quality management initiative had been initiated to keep a check on students’ learning outcomes, teaching methodologies and classroom environment.

To a question, he replied that the new initiative was aimed at improving the quality of inspections at the school level, standardising teaching and learning process and to rank schools.

Asked about the reservations of teachers towards these training, the director rejected them and said that these trainings were based on the data they had collected.

He added that PITE has also devised a follow-up mechanism through which they would take feedback assess educational improvement at the school level.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2018.