they take away from teaching time and result in deep job dissatisfaction. They also cite a lack of investment in teachers’ training, and poor physical working conditions as factors hindering teacher performance.
With 700,000 teachers in public schools, teachers constitute Pakistan’s largest workforce. The education reform debate is unbalanced unless teachers’ unions and associations are recognised as agents of change rather than blockers. The report concludes with recommendations to both governing bodies of the education department as well as teachers’ unions in order to use their existing structure as a platform for positive reform.
The report suggests the need for provincial governments to institute mechanisms for teachers’ union participation in the formulation of education policy. Furthermore, the governments must also consider awarding legal recognition to credible teachers associations thereby creating internal organisational reform. Provincial governments were also urged to support, through legislation if necessary, the establishment of credible, open and transparent electoral processes within teachers’ unions and associations.
“There is a huge gap between the education department and teachers and between parents and teachers”, Shaista Pervaiz, MNA PML-N and General Secretary of Women’s Parliamentary Caucus. “The government and teachers’ unions need to work together to lay the foundation of the future of our children”, she said.
Teachers’ unions, on the other hand, need to move their organisations towards professionalization, with a focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning in the country. Better internal mechanisms for enforcing accountability and standards, especially to deal with absentee teachers, ghost teachers and other such problems are also suggested as measures for unions to take.
“Teachers’ unions need to focus their energies on developing their institutional capacity in districts”, said Talat Hussain, renowned media person. “After the local government elections, this localising of the discourse may become inevitable”, he said.