Teacher education institutions are responsible for selecting and preparing prospective teachers as ‘instructors’ and employ training approach influenced by ‘normal school’ orientation. The students mind is considered as an ‘empty vessel’ to fill through transmission of official knowledge. A majority of teachers have continued using their ‘teacher-centred’ pedagogies to teach to the textbook/test for preparing students to pass examinations through rote-memorisation.

A majority of teachers have suffered from lack of understanding of professional values, standards, ethics, lack of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, lack of curriculum development/curriculum enrichment competencies, lack of inquiry capacity, creativity and critical thinking, participation in continuous professional development programmes for ‘monetary gain’ rather than ‘professional gain’, lack of professional capacity to revive their professional image as great teachers in the community. These factors have badly affected teachers’ morale, self-esteem and self-efficacy which could be one of the key reasons contributing to teachers’ poor performance.

Several studies reveal that teachers’ professional qualifications have not made a significant impact on their professionalism and student learning outcomes. The studies have also indicated lack of significant difference between trained and untrained teachers in terms of their performance, repertoire of their professional skills, knowledge and attitude. These studies have also indicated that the untrained teachers perform better than trained teachers. Therefore the private sector prefers to hire untrained teachers with a strong academic background including content knowledge in the respective disciplines.

In order to improve quality of teachers, successive governments introduced several teacher education reforms, including raising teachers’ salaries which have hardly contributed towards improving quality of teaching in the country. On the other hand, several countries, including Asian countries, introduced education reforms which made a significant difference in improving quality of teachers that resulted into creating some top school systems of the world. These include China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Finland, Singapore and others.

The quality of education is inextricably linked to quality of teachers. Hence, teachers are the lynchpin of an education system for improving the quality of education by changing their thinking, attitude and behaviour. A study carried by McKinsey & Company (2007) linked the quality of education to three key factors which included: a) getting the right people to become teachers, b) developing teachers as effective instructors, and c) developing the best possible instruction for every child for improving school performance. This suggests that student learning outcomes are directly linked to teacher pedagogy which is responsive to all students’ needs.

Education reforms are generally based on a ‘piecemeal’ projects approach funded by the international donors and concluded without sustainable impact. Several independent surveys have indicated that despite a series of education reforms the quality of education in Pakistan has continuously deteriorated. The National Education Assessment System (2005/2006) conducted its tests in grade four in science, mathematics, social studies and languages where a majority of students’ performance was found to be below average.

The Annual Status of Education Report-2013 has also depicted a bleak picture of education in the country. For example, 50 per cent students of class five are unable to read class two Urdu/Sindhi/Pushto stories, 43pc students of class five cannot read class two sentences in English, etc. The report further reveals that the Punjab stands as number one in quality education followed by Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltsitan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Balochistan and Sindh is at the bottom of the national level in quality of education. Recently, the Education and Literacy Department, Government of Sindh, conducted a scholastic ability test in selected districts and the results were found to be below average.

This indicates a dilemma of education reforms due to their poor conceptualisation, implementation and institutionalisation. Poor quality of education has also done major damage to human capital since the students are not able to get admission to professional colleges and other higher education institutions, they have become ‘narrow-minded citizens’ due to lack of creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills. As a result, students are perceived as pseudo literate and have become of victim of poverty and extremism and all kinds of social ills which can be cured through a quality education by developing students as ‘inquiry-oriented minds’ who are able to respect diversity, pluralistic views, innovation and inquiry.

Recently, the Higher Education Commission transformed teacher education with financial support from the USAID which has reshaped teacher education in the country. This initiative has replaced the old teacher education programmes with vibrant new programmes of longer duration for preparing elementary teachers as ‘professionally competent teachers’. I had an opportunity to review the new programmes which seemed to be a right initiative in a right direction; however, we have to wait and see its impact. Teacher education reform process should continue to transform to prepare quality teachers of early childhood education, secondary education and higher secondary education.

Provincial education sector plans have been developed which need to be reviewed in line with the existing rapid decline of education standards and prepare a vibrant implementation strategy to make things happen at the district and school levels. The Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments seem to have taken some radical initiatives to transform education in their provinces. Sindh and Balochistan have also begun to realise but ‘water has already gone under the bridge’. However, Sindh’s consolidation of schools, implementation of curriculum 2006, development of new textbooks, establishing Sindh Teacher Education Development Authority (STEDA) for quality assurance of teacher education and teacher certification and teacher licensing, etc., seem to be some key initiatives to transform education in Sindh.