Remember the teachers

In their hands lies the future

The practice of every individual, exposure to each interaction and necessity for all professions is teaching. It defines self-development and collectively, nation building. From parental care to classroom learning, self-discovery to mentorship, personal quests to free advice, every soul collects wisdom imparted by a teacher.  Within a lifetime, exposure to early years of teaching carries immense worth, consequently elevating classroom teaching and mentoring in importance. Huge responsibility then entrusts with school and university teachers. In their hands, lies, the future.

Heading the Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit in Punjab and steering its mammoth ‘Parho Punjab Barho Punjab’ Education Roadmap, my team and I tirelessly attempt to instil a conducive learning environment in over 50,000 public schools across Punjab, a province of 110 million people. Our ambition is to improve classroom interaction. Progressing through the sixth year of this roadmap, the core remains student-teacher interaction surrounded by key enablers of teaching quality, school infrastructure and education policy and management supporting its development.

Today, the world celebrates Teachers’ Day. So do thousands of teachers in Punjab, along with their public administration. Standing together under one roof, their resolve for better classroom instruction reverberates.  Among them are 80,000 teachers and educators entering the workforce this year, an unparalleled recruitment drive in size. This will ensure presence of at least 4 teachers in every public primary school of Punjab.

Being historically plagued with nepotism and lack of performance management, teacher recruitment in Punjab witnessed a revamp under this roadmap. The equivocal claim of this cycle complying with strict checks, both electronic entry assessment and unwavering interview screening, has not been refuted yet. To complement further is the Punjab Education Standards Development Authority (PESDA) bill presented in the Cabinet to introduce teacher licensing and link their career progression to performance. This is the transforming Punjab, on its way, cruising to meet global education development agenda.

Progress, however, has not come due to accountability alone. Undoubtedly, teaching is a noble profession. But decreasing respect and downgrading real income undermined it from being preferred. This lead to quite a few in the teaching workforce either being not the best in talent or else, demotivated. Despite the remarkable increase in teacher presence today, without teacher motivation and job satisfaction, any improvements in student-teacher interaction are bound to stagnate. Realizing this, both monetary and honorary initiatives tagged with professional development have been introduced. The best performing teachers receive annual awards and recognition from the Chief Minister while considerable salary raises are also in effect.

Standing next to the blackboard, in front of naïve minds grasping their every word and gesture is responsibility beyond comprehension. The same multiplies in presence of rapidly transforming teaching methods and digital adaptations. Developing and equipping teachers with these advancements is of utmost importance. Personalized professional development of teachers in Punjab is undeniably difficult, but possible. Punjab has introduced classroom focused and cluster-based teacher training utilizing peer networks. As a result, the training has not only improved in quality but training days have also increased from nine to forty per annum without affecting school hours. Training content, entirely refurbished with expert input, comprises of both content and pedagogy having renewed focus on teacher behaviour and motivation.

The aforementioned interventions, however, only lay down the path. Policy makers and managers can only do enough. To deliver in the classroom, every teacher has to make a difference. Enormous youth bulge of Pakistan stands at stake. Together with their resounding contribution, teachers alone can uplift the fate of our talented youth. In teachers, we need leaders, mentors and trainers for Punjab to prosper; Pakistan to compete in the global arena.

An important challenge surfacing Punjab is of different educational streams.  Those catering to high income segment put public schooling at a disadvantage. Convergence of this gap is vital. To complement the roadmap efforts and also uplift low cost private schools, elite private schools should step forward. More than running models of economic gains, their experience and expertise provides them with an opportunity to contribute. After induction of qualified public school teachers, productive partnerships with elite private schools can upgrade teacher education and school management in the public sector.

Due to scarcity of resources, immediate visits to schools might visually underreport any improvements. Academic turnaround is a continuing process. It requires coherence of multiple interventions, enablers and stakeholders. There is room for arguing how far we have travelled, but I assert that this journey of academic refinement and towards ideal student-teacher interaction has long begun.

My interaction with public school teachers revives hope. My team’s engagement with the school department and relevant government officials paves the way for optimism. The support from academics, practitioners and donors is ever growing. And foremost is the definite ownership of the roadmap and reform efforts by the Chief Minister. In sync, the current combination stirs confidence and assurance. Punjab remains fully determined in its resolve: every child must learn, and learn well.