Elevate the teacher

The most important professional is the teacher in any society. Only a good and professional competent teacher will be able to produce a good citizen. In Pakistan, the teaching profession has never been considered worthy. Ask any student what s/he wants to become and hardly anybody will opt for the teaching profession. Almost all students have ambitions of becoming doctors, engineers, civil officers, armed forces officers, or any other professional but not a teacher.

If we want to improve the literacy rate and improve the standard of education then first of all we have to increase the budget allocation for education from two percent to a minimum of five percent. Of course, this can only be done gradually; the allocation can be increased by 0.5 percent every year. The other most important thing is to improve the career path of a teacher so that good students are attracted to the profession as well. Although government service teachers’ careers have improved a lot, they are still not at par with other professions. Regarding the private sector where more almost 60 percent of the teachers are employed, their career path is hardly better. Even those institutions where the fee is astronomically high don’t pay their teachers well, although their owners and a few of their executives lead a lavish lifestyle. If we want to join the developed nations, we have to improve the education sector and for this purpose the teaching career has to be made attractive.

Sqn-Ldr(r) Tarique Mahmood Malak

Rawalpindi