Teachers complain about unfavourable work environment
While all political parties claim that they consider education to be a vital component of their policy agenda, their statements sound hollow, given their historical record and lack of political will. The problems in the education sector are real and do not show any signs of diminishing. While it is important to acknowledge some of the policies that have been implemented in the past, it is undeniable that these policies have not always achieved their objectives. It is important to identify the key issues before the policy-makers can design policies to improve the education sector. Here we are highlighting some of the self-reported problems faced by teachers.
When teachers, who play the most important role in the delivery of education, are dissatisfied with their profession, it speaks volumes about the current state of the education sector. As part of the campaign to raise awareness of the problems in the education sector, GEO invited its viewers to call and record their complaints which were then compiled by Alif Ailaan for the purpose of analysis. Around 1,300 teachers called in to express their grievances about the education system. The majority of the teachers (about 45 per cent) complained about governance issues, including job dissatisfaction and corruption in the education system. A sizeable proportion (around 20 per cent) complained about the poor infrastructure of the schools and its surroundings.
The majority of teachers’ complaints are about basic issues such as the poor conditions of the school buildings, uncertainty in the teaching career with unclear promotion structure and delayed salary payments, and lack of basic amenities for teachers.
Even though in Punjab there has been a recent drive to improve educational standards, including the introduction of Danish and Excellent Schools that are promised to be at par with schools such as Aitchison, a large number of complaints are still from Punjab (around 58 per cent of the total complaints). The nature of complaints shows that schooling system in Punjab has not overcome fundamental problems. Lack of books, desks, furniture, basic amenities and playgrounds form a regular feature of the complaints made by teachers in Punjab. In a developed city such as Lahore, it is surprising to find that some schools do not have libraries, labs and regular provision of books, despite being located in the urban part of the city.
In Lahore one of the teachers also complained about having no proper desks, hostel facilities, or drinking water in a school for the blind and disabled.
The Chief Minister’s initiatives in the Punjab such as the Debate, Speech and Essay Writing Competition in 2009-10 are praiseworthy but when viewed in context of the larger picture, where some students do not even have the requisite books it is debatable whether these initiatives are necessary. Deciding the right mix and the optimal timeframe for policies is one of the key steps required for the new federal and provincial governments to improve the current state of the educational sector.
The complaints regarding governance issues reveal the extent of corruption in this sector across all provinces. Teachers’ complaints suggest that there have been instances where some deserving individuals were not inducted into teaching service despite having achieved merit marks. Some of those who were in service for a while have had their terms terminated on pretexts such as lack of higher education even though they had completed their bachelors.
A few teachers also expressed their concern about corruption in the education department where teachers who have connections are favoured in cases of transfers, promotions and selection. Those who have strong connections are promoted to the position of Executive District Officer (EDO), District Education Officer (DEO) or head teachers, depending on the strength of his/her connections.
This rent seeking behaviour has also undermined the implementation of policies such as the rationalization policy in 2010 where teachers who had some influence did not let the transfer take place by either requesting the education department to stop the transfer or by filing court cases against the government at the high court and the service tribunal which ultimately forced the government to halt the implementation of this policy in some areas. Therefore, the government needs to cultivate its ability to withstand such pressures and eliminate rent seeking such that it is better able to implement fair recruitment, transfer and rationalization policies.
There are also complaints about the shortage of teachers in some schools which overburdens the teachers who are given the task to handle a considerably large number of students, often having to teach multiple grades at the same time. Although pre- and in-service training for teachers has been institutionalized under the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework, there are still gaps in the training system and teachers are not trained to handle such difficult situations.
There are additional reasons for teachers’ disinterest and lack of motivation at work. A few teachers complained about not receiving their salaries for the last six/seven months or not having the salary increase they deserved.
Although the governments have introduced incentive schemes for teachers, such as giving out monetary awards to teachers from best performing schools, these schemes have only benefited schools that were already performing well and have failed to alter the fundamental incentive structure for all teachers.
In a place where teachers face uncertainty about their promotion and delivery of salary, are distracted away from teaching due to multiple other tasks they are required to perform and face severe constraints due to poor support system and working conditions, it is hardly a surprise that teachers are not interested in teaching and thus perform poorly at work.
However, the government is not the only one to be held responsible for the poor state of the education sector. Some teachers also complain about the attitude of their colleagues, who are absent too often, are negligent in their duties or have been involved in unethical activities such as aiding some students to cheat on exams, or taking favours from the education department based on personal connections. Therefore, there is a part of the teaching community that shares the blame in undermining the standard of the education system in Pakistan.
It is hoped that the newly elected government will address issues of corruption at both departmental and school level and ensure clear, merit-based promotion systems, and proper and fair implementation of salary increases and payment delivery. In conjunction with this, the government should improve the infrastructure and facilities provided to the teachers to achieve better standards of education.
Neelum Maqsood is a Research Associate at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS). She has an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge. She is interested in research and policy analysis in the areas of labour economics and human development. Ammar Rashid is a development professional and an alumnus of LUMS. He is interested in political theory, populism and social movements.
