KARACHI, Feb 21: Speakers at the opening session of a conference called for a planned approach for removal of disparities and provision of quality education to all students in the country.

They held that in view of the increasing load of work and role of teachers as catalyst for social change, enhancement in the quality of teachers’ training was need of the hour.

A three-day conference on “Quality in education: teaching and leadership in challenging times” is being organized by the AKU Institute for Educational Development (AKUIED), wherein educationists from Pakistan, India, East Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Malaysia, Poland, UK, US and Canada are participating. The conference will conclude on Feb 23.

Speaking as chief guest, Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro said that quality improvement and school effectiveness had remained a major source of concern for the policy makers and the education administrators in the country.

She said that the government was committed to achieve its goals of Education for All (EFA) plan by 2015, which would certainly be achieved, though with some delay, but the main challenge was to ensure that the factor of quality education was not ignored while initiating education reforms.

“Quality education should emphasize the quality of curricula, textbook development, teacher education and an improved system of examination. Besides, primary education, early childhood education has been initiated as part of our efforts to improve achievements of pupils at primary education level”, she remarked.

The minister lauded different initiatives and achievements by the AKU in the education sector and urged the public and private education institutions, particularly the teacher education institutions, to benefit from the research outcome and promote research and scholarship culture in their respective institutions.

In his address of welcome, president of AKU, Shamsh Kassim Lakha, held teachers as the strongest influence on students, but remarked that in many low income countries; teachers did not meet even the minimum required standards for the profession, which was a matter of concern.

Poorly trained teachers fail to attract students in classrooms and as such parents develop a poor judgement of the quality of teaching and decides to withdraw their wards from schools, he added.

He also referred to the concentration on primary and secondary education by planners and remarked that such approaches alone could not bring changes as these schools could succeed only when the teachers and trainers were provided by the higher education institutions.

AKUIED Director Dr Mohammad Memon said that while Pakistan and other developing countries were in the process of universalizing basic education and improving its quality, the deliberations of the international conference would help review and improve educational policies and practices.

He said that schools had to play as dynamic institutions for the socialization, moral and ethical development of children. Education delivered by schools must broaden children’s horizon and perspective, he added.

In her keynote address, the director of the Institute of Development Studies and Practices, Quetta, Dr Quratulain Bukhari said that leadership was built by integrating with people, not by isolating educational institutions from people.

“Education that is structured in a way, which does not leave space for experimental learning, while interacting with society as a whole and does not encourage young people, to engage in serious discourse of community actions, is a very unfortunate waste of time and resources”, she maintained while sharing her experiences of educational development process involving women in Balochistan, under a project initiated in the early 90s.

Dr David Taylor, the acting provost of the AKU, the chair of the conference organizing committee, Dr Anjum Halai also spoke at the inaugural session.