Let the teachers teach

Improving the quality of education deserves serious attention in a country like ours, where a significant proportion of children enrolled in school cannot read or write properly. Teachers obviously have to play a vital role in improving the quality of education. There is, however, a range of problems which prevents effective teaching across schools in our country. While teaching-related problems are evidenced in both public and private (especially low-income) schools, this article will draw attention to a major factor deterring teachers from performing their duty within government schools in particular.

There are a range of interrelated issues relevant to improving the quality of teaching in Pakistani public schools, ranging from teacher training issues to the need for providing effective support to teachers, as well as adequately supervising their work. Educationists argue for putting in place a structure of teacher incentives, which provide recognition to achievements of teachers in improving their knowledge and skills. At the same time, it is also very important to prevent political interference in teacher appointments, which enables “ghost teachers” to keep drawing generous salaries despite frequent absenteeism and inadequate performance of their school duties.

Yet, just as political interference in teacher appointment needs to be curbed, it is necessary for other government departments to stop placing demands on teachers which evidently distracts them from performing their duty.

Public school teachers have long been complaining about the government policy of allocating them additional assignments, such as election duties or involving them in vaccination drives. The prevailing insecurity in the country, which led school teachers to be targeted during anti-polio drives, as well as the ongoing controversy surrounding the use of schools for the upcoming elections, have recently brought this problematic policy practice to the forefront.

While usually more proactive when it comes to safeguarding remuneration and job security, this time around, teacher unions are taking a strong stance against the practice of placing extra burdens on schoolteachers, which have nothing to do with their main professional responsibility.

The All Primary Teachers Association (APTA) has strongly denounced the prevailing practice of making teachers do the work of election officials and health workers. In a recent statement, the provincial president of APTA in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has declared these added tasks as having nothing to do with their primary job responsibility. The leaders of the Punjab Teachers Union had also been protesting against teachers being dragged into non-teaching activities and at the end of last year, the Punjab government gave assurances that teachers would no longer be called upon to undertake this extra work. However, the pressure on teachers to participate in vaccination drives and in the upcoming election remains.

Overlooking teachers’ concerns, senior bureaucrats have defended their existing policy by pointing out how public-sector teachers are, in fact, government employees and are, therefore, required to perform any government duties assigned to them.

Given this ongoing tussle, teacher associations have legitimately highlighted the inherent contradiction of government priorities, whereby there is constant rhetorical emphasis placed on the need for improving the standard of education on the one hand, and on the other, teachers are compelled to perform additional duties, on top of vaccination drives and election duties, such as further election-related tasks like compiling electoral rolls and assisting with collecting census information.

This debate of expecting teachers to perform a wide range of duties, completely unrelated to imparting education, is not only confined to Pakistan. Countries like the Philippines and India are also struggling with similar problems. Yet, given the fact that the state of education in our country is, perhaps, the most dismal in the broader region, we have the greater need to not only enable but to also allow teachers to focus on ensuring effective student learning.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2013.