Education woes: ‘Focus on teachers first’

Teachers’ training seen as more important than enrolment drive.

LAHORE:

Politicians and educationists on Wednesday commented on the state of education in the province and various government initiatives.

They were speaking at a conference held by the Pakistan Coalition for Education and Ghazali Education Trust in collaboration with Oxfam and the Foundation Open Society Institute Pakistan titled Provincial People’s Education Assembly. The participants were largely critical of the government’s initiatives.

Fareed Ahmed Paracha of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) criticised the decision to make English the medium of instruction in public schools. He said the government lacked the resources to execute its enrolment drive. “A government cannot implement 100 per cent enrolment without adequate resources,” he said.

He also advocated segregated schools. “Parents feel more comfortable sending girls to schools only for girls and with women teachers,” he said.

Former education minister Mian Imran Masood stressed the need for quality education.

He said there was a need to differentiate between ghost schools and schools that were not functional.

“Ghost schools do not exist except on paper,” he said. He said many more schools lacked resources, teachers and a learning environment.

MPA Nosheen Hamid of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) stressed the need for teacher development. She said learning outcomes could be improved by training teachers.

She said it was vital to educate new politicians and political parties on local issues.

Adeeb Jawedani, president of the Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, said, “Powerful people in our society do not want every child to be equally educated.”

He said the state of education in public schools was poor. “Teachers at public schools are reluctant to send their own children to the same school because they know how low the learning outcomes will be,” he said.

Khanewal Education EDO Shaukat Sherwani said mismanagement of resources was one of the major reasons schools lacked facilities, limiting both access and quality of education.

“There are more teachers in some schools than we need,” he said. “Then there are schools where there is a severe shortage.”

He said that there should be a policy to make up for shortage of facilities at existing schools before building new ones.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.