Author: Shagufta Shazadi
Prime Minister Imran Khan in his
first address to the nation on the national television said that he would
improve the quality of education in public schools. He was candid in admitting the bleak picture of the public schools across Punjab and other provinces, saying
that the middle-class families have to spend a great deal of money to send
their children to private schools as no one is prepared to get their children
admitted in public schools.
Yes, our prime minister is right,
public schools offer anything but learning. Similarly, the World Economic Forum
ranked Pakistan at 125th, out of 130 countries, in a list of availability of
top-quality education. This indicates how pathetic our country’s education
system and how badly it requires attention.
Since the current public education system in Pakistan is unable to provide top-quality education to a
large population, while unreasonably exorbitant “burger schools” are
exceptionally expensive for the majority of the people. For this reason, a wide a portion of children are enrolled at low-cost private schools with the hope for
acquiring “top-quality” education.
Parents prefer to send their
child to private schools as such schools ensure small class sizes, the
availability of basic necessities (like water, furniture, toilets), safety and
security, cleanliness and student exposures etc. However, the thing one needs
to ponder upon is; does studying in a private school ensure that a student is
acquiring quality education, or do private schools need to undertake other
conditions required for top-quality education?
Our premier educational
institutes demand grades. Hence, these grades act as gatekeepers and are the
only evidence to certify the capabilities of a student. Ultimately, these
grades increase the market value of a school as parents prefer to send their
children to those schools, the students of which have achieved the highest results
in past examinations.
In some cases, schools try to
impress parents through introducing foreign textbooks that necessitate for
qualified teachers.
Observing teachers in different
low-income private schools, I could only see mini classrooms and
narrow-corridors with lack of displays and no space for students’ co-curricular
activities. The irony is not only associated with the physical infrastructure
of the schools, there are other major issues that impede students from
attaining quality education.
Foremost, teachers are not equipped with modern teaching strategies. This happens because most of the teachers are hired based on their content knowledge, with the lowest salary demand. In most of
cases, teachers in low-cost private schools are intermediate or bachelors and are hardly ever master’s degree holders but most of them have no professional education. Consequently, untrained teachers with weaker concept of content knowledge keep using conventional teaching approaches in classrooms. Their rut routine is explaining a topic by directly reading it from textbook or teaching using a blackboard only.
I am not blaming teachers for
their incompetency in classroom teaching, rather its schools’ and government’s
responsibility to build their professional capacities. Firstly, all schools
should develop a systematic mechanism to hire teachers meeting their standards.
Once they are hired, the school must keep them under adequate supervision to
reduce the initial shortcomings. Secondly, teachers’ salaries should be
handsome. When a teacher’s pay is even lower than a labour, the turnover rate
gets higher.
When inquired about the teachers’
capacity building, one of the principals of private schools said: “If we raise
their professional approach, teachers will either switch over to other schools or demand an increase in their salary.” Such a mindset is a shock as on one
hand private schools promise quality education, but on the other hand, they
compromise on students’ future. Hence, it is proved that the only purpose of
opening non-government schools in every street is due to its capability of
generating money.
Teachers of these low-cost
private schools are motivated and inclined towards polishing their teaching
skills. However, they have their genuine concerns for their lack of teaching
skills and having weaker concepts of teaching and learning. “I get 2k salary;
how can I manage to enrol in a professional course when my pay doesn’t cover
my utility bills,” said a teacher of a private school in Sindh. Several other
teachers were found having a similar concern.
Of course, professional development
institutes require resources and necessitate a lot of monetary values; and for
that reason most of the low-cost private teachers are unable to attain
teacher-trainings. In some cases, the majority of the school teachers are female
and a societal stereotype of prohibiting girls from travelling alone in public
transport hinders female teachers from getting access to teacher education
programs.
With the minimal income and
facilities, the low-cost private schools’ teachers try their best to provide
basic education. However, if they are given an opportunity to polish their
skills they will surely add efforts in improving classroom teaching to ensure a
quality education.
It is a hope from the current the government would take necessary measures not only to raise the standards of
public schools, but also consider the low-cost private schools, as they equally
contribute to educating our youth.
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