KARACHI: A recent survey shows that government schoolteachers in Pakistan are better qualified and more experienced than private schoolteachers. However, learning levels of children in private schools is better than that of children enrolled in government schools.

According to research shared by Alif Ailaan on World Teachers’ Day, there are nearly 1.4 million teachers in Pakistan, teaching both in the public and private sectors. Of them, 650,000, or 51 per cent, are government schoolteachers. And 51pc of those government schoolteachers have a BEd or higher degree. Also, 62pc government schoolteachers have more than 16 years of teaching experience while 67pc of private schoolteachers have less than five years of teaching experience.

On the other hand, looking at the students and their levels of learning, 67pc of class five students in private schools can read a story in Urdu compared to 52pc in government schools. Also 65pc of class five students in private schools can read a sentence in English compared to 45pc in government schools. Then some 61pc of class five students in private schools can do two-digit division compared to 47pc in government schools.

There are several factors hindering a teacher’s performance and the learning outcomes of children in government schools, including multi-grade teaching, higher teacher-student ratio, excessive workload, non-teaching duties, lack of training opportunities and lack of basic facilities in schools. Another problem is that there are not enough teachers available in government schools. Some 29pc of government primary schools in Pakistan consist of six classes (katchi and class one to five) have just one teacher. On average, the teacher-student ratio in government primary schools is one teacher for every 37 students.

With nearly one-third of teachers teaching more than 36 periods a week, there is excessive workload on the teachers as they handle multiple classes or sections and teach subjects that should otherwise be taught by subject specialists. In addition to the excessive teaching duties are the non-teaching duties. A government schoolteacher spends an average of 50 days during an academic year performing duties that have nothing to do with teaching. These include election duties, compiling electoral rolls, assisting in collecting census information, participating in vaccination drives and overseeing development work carried out by school management committees and parent-teacher councils.

Alif Ailaan’s survey showed that 43pc of government schoolteachers have not received any training in the last five years. As a result, 58pc of government schoolteachers have no knowledge of the national curriculum, while 73pc have not been offered any courses on assessment techniques in pre-service training.

Finally, the lack of basic facilities in government schools adversely affect the performance of teachers. Some 45pc of government primary school buildings in the country are in a bad way. There are 49pc schools that function without electricity while 37pc have no drinking water and 35pc are missing toilets. Also 33pc are without a boundary wall.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2016