Teaching teachers

Despite its longevity and citations of excellence, FCE is still affiliated with the University of Punjab (UoP).

Considering the decline in educational standards detailed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2013 issued by the Pakistan Secretariat on January 17, it might have been assumed that teacher training was high on the government ‘to do’ list. That may be an unwarranted assumption. Teacher training resources are thin on the ground and require care and attention if they are to prosper. One such is the Federal College of Education (FCE), which is now 40-years-old, has 600 students from every province in the country and is currently struggling to get the recognition it requires. Despite the FCE offering a three-year BS in education, a Masters in Education and a one-year Bachelors of Education none of the students gaining any of these awards will walk away with an FCE degree. Despite its longevity and citations of excellence, it is affiliated with the University of Punjab (UoP) and it is the UoP that hands out the degrees much to the chagrin of the FCE.

The college director speculates that the reason for a lack of interest in the wellbeing of the FCE may stem from the fact that it is a federal asset but umbilically linked to a provincial asset that may not be inclined to support a college that has a national, rather than a provincial, intake. Were the FCE to be given degree-awarding status, it would enhance its status and at a stroke, cut the red tape that so entangles relationships with the UoP. Consideration is being given to such a move by the Capital Administration and Development Divisions which acknowledge that it can find no fault with the FCE. Once again, we find that bureaucracy and small-mindedness possibly attached to a degree of territoriality both provincially and centrally, is hobbling a vital development resource. Pakistan needs to be turning out trained teachers by the tens of thousands for the next decade if it is to turn around the decline highlighted by the ASER report. An early resolution would be welcome.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2014.

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