- The supply of teachers is far less compared to the demand
The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said increasing gap between demand and supply of teachers is a great threat to the future of the country.
“Student-teacher ratio as well as teacher recruitment practices, teacher management, teacher attendance, teaching practices and absence of performance monitoring system in majority of the schools is resulting in low student learning,” it said.
PEW President Dr Murtaza Mughal said, “Pakistan’s prosperous future can only be ensured through the realisation that every child needs a teacher. For this creation of around fifty thousand new teaching posts in the next few years are required.”
He said that the supply of teachers is far less compared to the demand. “The world needs 6.8 million teachers to ensure every child’s right to basic education are fulfilled. Globally, 5.1 million teachers are expected to leave the profession in the next two years which and must be replaced,” he added.
Highlighting the number of school drop-outs he said, “The progress on reducing the number of out-of-school children has stalled. As of 2011, 57 million children of primary school age and another 69 million of lower secondary school age were out of school threatening the goal of Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015.
He informed that the situation is most extreme in the sub-Saharan Africa and SAARC region where the number of students continues to rise, which calls for a minimum of 10 per cent increase in supply of teachers every year to meet the goal of UPE.
Furthermore, he said, “Policies and initiatives to address the problem of exclusion from education and reduce inequalities remain inadequate in many countries including Pakistan.”
Government spending as well as international aid cuts due to multiple reasons has jeopardised the future of millions of children. It has resulted in two per cent increase in global primary net enrollment rate since 2005.
