World Teachers’ Day is celebrated every year on 5th October globally, to create awareness about the status of teachers all over the world. You! takes a look...
Referring to ‘Freedom in Teaching, Empowering Teachers’, which is the theme of World Teachers’ Day 2017, what needs to be highlighted is the status of education in Pakistan. Sadly, in the recent times, the private education sector is considered a highly profitable business. Education, from the basic level, has become a commodity on sale, to say the least. As a result, this ‘trend’ has perished the social values and educational ethics. Nowadays, friendly and peaceful environment, standard educational facilities, high-tech computing services and institutional infrastructure are considered tangible requisites for quality education. However, intangible factors like discipline, good behaviour, manners, are bygones now. Today, our teachers are not as respected as they were in the past simply because our education system is more directed towards commercialization. What has led to this phenomenon?
In this regard, You! talks to a few educators to know more about the overall situation of school teachers in Pakistan.
Saniya Sarfaraz* has been teaching at a renowned private school in Karachi for the past two years. According to her, the scenario has dramatically changed now as compared to the time when she was a student herself. “We follow western trends blindly and this has led to the commercialization of education as well, especially in high profile schools of the country. This is mainly because some complex-ridden minds interpret and deem modernization as westernization. Children can’t be scolded even if they misbehave like it happens in the west. Teachers have to always pamper them and tolerate their tantrums otherwise the higher-ups and parents will leave no chance to be rude to them. If the students get bad grades, rather than motivating them to do better in future, they lodge a complaint to the principal who pressurises the teachers to be careful the next time,” states Sarfaraz.
It has also been noticed that nowadays teachers are not given freedom in teaching. Thus, there is no such concept like teachers’ empowerment. If they teach something which is not included in the curriculum, they are criticized and labelled as ‘unprofessional’. Often teachers are asked to change their teaching methods which put them in to trouble. Her creative insight is killed and her freedom to teach according to her choice is taken away.
Samreen Essa*, who has been in the profession of teaching for the past five years, says, “The current commercialization of education has killed the purpose of education to a great extent. Also, it has lowered the status of teachers in the society. Students have stopped valuing their teachers like they ought to and their thinking has reduced to the fact that education and educators can be bought at a certain price. Furthermore, as the parents pay a huge amount, the institution considers them as customers, hence; great emphasis is laid upon the fact that the customers are always right. Sadly, it has become a business in which the ultimate goal is to satisfy the clients.”
On elaborating her thoughts on empowering teachers, Essa states, “It is important to constantly remind people about the significance of teachers in a society and the need of empowering them. Also, teachers should be given their choice of environment to implement and impart knowledge to the students.”
Naz Saeed, another school teacher in Karachi, has similar views. “In my opinion, most of the private schools are just minting money. Of course, quality education is being imparted to the students but on the name of commercialisation. These schools have fixed the yardstick of high charges as they set parameters of quality education. This has given the leverage to parents to get a hold on school, thus making us, teachers, do everything to satisfy their demands.”
“I am often discouraged for including activities which may take extra time but are very useful. The subject coordinator disapproves of such ideas and tells me to stick to the time slot (35 minutes per period). This has killed my interest in teaching as I can’t plan stuff for my students which I think is good for their knowledge building,” laments Saeed.
“School improvement is not possible without the empowerment of teachers. Teachers should be given the power to make decisions about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Heads and school leaders must provide assistance to offer freedom of movement to the teachers. Also, empowerment is important for children, as well. The foundations needed for empowering teachers and children include respect, validation and success. Besides, all teachers need a healthy, creative and accommodating environment in order to give good performance and provide effective learning and development skills to the children,” adds Saeed.
On the contrary, Faryal Hussain, Principal Washington International School, states, “It is true that our education system has become commercialized, but who is to be blamed? Parents who want the best education for their kids, or the institutions who want to capitalize? This is a situation of demand and supply. The concept of education is misunderstood.”
While addressing the issue of parents’ misbehaving and blaming the school and teachers for their child’s bad progress, Hussain says, “Well there are institutions that cater to the needs of the privileged class, but not to the extent that they can impose too much in the matter of running the school. Good institutions will ‘look into the matter’. But I agree that most of the time parents blame the schools for their children’s negative behaviour. But we have to see the bigger picture, it’s a vicious cycle. When parents pay high fees they deem the institution responsible for the upbringing of the students.
“Most of the schools develop the curriculum keeping in mind the best interest of students. But, there was a time when teachers were serious about their profession. So, my question here is, can we compare the current lot of teachers with those in the past? I agree there is a lot more expectation and pressure from the teachers nowadays, but one can’t ignore the fact that the educators of the previous years were immensely dedicated to their profession.”
About teachers’ empowerment she enunciates, “Teachers firstly need to take pride in their profession. It’s not just a past time but a commitment- a commitment to your own self and to the up-coming generation.”
*Names have been changed to retain privacy
