The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers, hence, teachers are considered pivotal to any education system. While underscoring the importance of teachers, the National Commission on Education-1959 acknowledged that “no system of education could be better than its teachers”.

After Independence there has been continuous erosion in the quality of teachers and their professional status. In order to address this issue, successive governments put substantial funds in both pre and in-service teacher education programmes but these could not improve teachers’ professional attitude, skills, knowledge and values and their overall sense of professionalism. The National Education Policy-2009 also acknowledged a failure of teacher education programmes and held them responsible for lowering the quality of education in the country.

Teacher quality is widely recognised as the most important factor for improving the quality of education. The world’s best education systems have been able to inspire and attract bright graduates to join the teaching profession and prepare them as “mindful teachers” whereas in our country many graduates join the teaching profession merely for getting a government job and not because teaching is their preferred profession; these teachers quit teaching as soon as they get a lucrative job.

Teachers’ absenteeism has become a common problem in our education system which has given birth to ghost schools and ghost teachers.

The professional status of teachers is linked to their professional attitude, values, aspirations, competencies, knowledge, commitment and accountability. In order to address teachers’ professional status we should ask ourselves critical questions which include: who joins the teaching profession, how teachers are prepared, how are teacher students certified/licensed, how are teachers inducted, what kind of salary package including professional and financial incentives are offered, how teachers’ performance is measured, what are opportunities for their career growth, and what kind of mentoring support is provided for socialisation and professionalisation in schools.

Teachers’ professional status across the world has been affected by centrally controlled curriculum, prescribed pedagogies and assessment practices. Teachers in Pakistan have also been facing a similar situation since 1970s.

Teaching in the country today has suffered from lack of formal recognition of teaching as a profession, lack of respect from society, including the lack of professional values and ethics, lack of professional knowledge, skills and competencies, lack of trust among parents and students, lack of teachers’ self-esteem and professional identity, lack of opportunities for career paths and their personal and professional integrity.

Unlike teachers’ unions/associations in the developed countries, teacher unions in Pakistan seem to be more concerned about teachers’ financial gains rather than their professional capital. Teachers of the past were highly respected in spite of their low salaries and many of them were excellent writers, researchers, lifelong learners, creative thinkers, communicative pedagogues, social change agents and caring professionals who devoted their lives to teaching and learning.

Across the globe numerous efforts have been made to enhance teachers’ professional status by raising their academic and professional qualifications, providing continuous professional development opportunities and increasing salary and other incentives. In this regard, Unesco has been celebrating Teachers’ Day on Oct 5 every year since 1994 which is highly commendable. This day reminds us of our shared commitment for enhancing teachers’ status through professional, financial and socio-economic uplift.

During the past five years, a number of measures have been taken to enhance teachers’ professional status to move away from rhetoric reality. These include: increasing their salary structure including time scale, robust teacher preparation through a two-year associate degree in Education and a four-year Bachelor of Education (Honours), national professional standards for teachers, national standards for accreditation of teacher education for quality assurance, offering scholarships for higher studies, possible teacher licensing, improved competency-based curriculum and assessment, etc.

The Higher Education Commission has also been working on developing a continuing professional development qualification framework which will further improve serving teachers’ professional qualification through bridging courses. The National Education Policy-2009 also proposed an academic Bachelor’s Degree with professional B.Ed and an academic Master’s degree with professional B.Ed as the minimum requirement for teaching at the elementary and secondary/higher secondary levels, respectively, to be ensured by 2018. This indicates that the government has taken a number of measures to enhance teachers’ professional status, however, more efforts are yet to be made to ensure enhancement of their professional status.

The 21st century is an era of innovation, creativity and advancement in technological development in which the teachers’ role is not to become consumer of knowledge but active professional leaner to contribute to knowledge that could help improve classroom pedagogies and practices. Today’s teachers require better understanding of the moral purpose of education, a better understanding of educational and social values/issues, knowledge of curriculum, subject matter knowledge, innovative and learner-centred pedagogies, a better understanding of diverse needs of children, problem-solving and critically thinking skills and resilient leadership, which is missing in the existing teaching community.

However, teachers have to earn their professional recognition through demonstrating their professional commitment, sense of professionalism, professional knowledge and competence, leadership qualities and pedagogy of care for regaining their confidence and trust of the society.

On a positive note, our teaching force has a rich and vibrant potential to turnaround schools if their professional role is re-defined as communicative, caring, constructive, creative, compassionate and critical thinkers.

The writer is Professor in Education, Aga Khan University Institute for Education Development, Karachi.

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