Teachers largely excluded from reform discourse

Islamabad
Teachers’ unions represent the organised voice of one of the largest workforces in Pakistan yet they are largely excluded from the reform discourse in the country.
Alif Ailaan released ‘Reclaiming Dignity: The State of Teachers’ Unions and Their Future’ — a pioneering study on government school teachers’ unions and associations across Pakistan.
According to the report, political, social and legal barriers instituted by various governments and education managers in Pakistan prevent the development of teachers’ associations resulting in weakened capacity to act as constructive agents in the education reform process.
A lack of documentation and knowledge surrounding the objective and distribution of teachers’ unions in Pakistan motivated this extensive report covering all 17 teachers’ associations as well as the 28 factions researchers were able to identify.
“The report intends to fill a major gap in our collective knowledge about teachers and their collective voice. One thing that teachers’ bodies must recognise is that constructive dialogue on the role and responsibility of teachers is vital to reform Pakistan’s broken system of education”, said Ammar Rashid, lead researcher and author for the report.
The study finds that teachers’ unions and associations are primarily focused on service terms and conditions, sometimes at the expense of students’ well-being. They almost never engage with the government on issues of student learning outcomes, well-being or teaching methodology. On the other hand, teachers argue that most provincial governments and education departments are focused on punitive and coercive measures to ‘bring teachers in line’ rather than involving them as legitimate constituents and agents in the process of education reform. According to the report, teachers’ unions complain of the burden of non-teaching duties as 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.