KARACHI, July 24: Speakers at an educational conference on Saturday placed emphasis on methodical and rigorous training of teachers for a qualitative change in education.

They viewed that students at schools should not only be required to reproduce things they memorised, or repeat exactly what their teachers had taught them; but should also be allowed to disagree on things and think critically about them.

The conference on "policy and planning of education sector in Pakistan", was inaugurated by the provincial minister for education, Dr Hamida Khuhro, at the auditorium of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The FPCCI, Faran Education Society, and Education Foundation have jointly organised the conference scheduled to conclude on July 27.

In her presidential address, Dr Hamida Khuhro mentioned that her department, among other things, would be targeting for increasing enrolment in primary schools, enhancing and upgrading training facilities for teachers, and motivating parents to send their children to schools.

She called for the use of electronic media for promoting education and increasing the rate of primary educated students. "At the same time, we will have to change the environment at our schools, and ensure quality education and basic facilities at all government schools," she added.

The minister held that education was absolutely a key to national development, and as such, efforts should be made to motivate parents to send their wards to schools.

She added that the target of education can only be achieved when all stakeholders act in letter and spirit, while students, particularly those in rural areas, are taught and trained in a way that they can earn a befitting livelihood.

The president of FPCCI, Riaz Ahmad Tata, said that with the emergence of globalisation and increasing competition, education had become one of the defining enterprises.

He, however, noted that educational institutions in the country were under-resourced and needed a pool of high quality human capital, capable of innovation, forward thinking and professional quality management.

The chairman of FPCCI Standing Committee on Education, Muhammad Siddique Sheikh, Secretary Education Sindh Ghulam Ali Pasha, vice-chairman, Pakistan Red Crescent Society Sardar Yasin Malik, educational expert from UK Clewdyn Davis also spoke.

The secretary of Faran Education Society, Reaz Ahmad, informed that educationists and experts would make presentation on 10 different topics related to policy, plan and practices in the education sector, while a conference declaration would also be released on the concluding day.

Speaking at the first technical session on "Quality Education", Ghulam Ali Pasha, secretary of the education department, said that in order to cope with challenges of the fast changing world, influence of community, globalisation and decentralisation, new technologies must be implemented.

He said that the education department had embarked upon innovations in various areas, including curricula, textbooks, teachers' training, learning environment, early childhood education, madressah reforms, public private partnerships and good governance.

He mentioned that as its efforts towards achieving quality education, the education department was also working for bridging the communication gap between teachers and curriculum developers.

He said the government was also taking measures for quality training of teachers, and a system of continuing review, updating, monitoring and evaluation and training programme for teachers.

Prof Saeed A Choudhary said that education in Pakistan was divided into three streams; English medium schools, urdu medium schools and religious seminaries.

Teachers in Urdu medium schools - the mass education schools - were deficient in decades, he added.

Teachers of Urdu schools were weak in methodology, he said, because their training itself was a weak area with minimal financial input, untrained trainers from secondary schools, unreal material production, non-availability of laboratory equipment and chemicals, and no special concern for teaching science and mathematics, he further viewed.

He maintained that teaching and learning were processes of building blocks of concepts one above the other till one reached the apex. This building was not complete because there were barely 100 days of actual teaching at schools in the whole year.

While on the other hand, there was a race for marks for admission to medical and engineering, which was developing a tendency for selective study of only a few important questions, leaving a large chunk of so-called "unimportant concepts", he elaborated.

He also remarked that the most dangerous decline that had been seen since the 1980's was teachers' bigotry and open expression of sectarian and religious prejudices.

He said that intensity and rigour must be the hallmark of teachers' training programmes.

Dr Shahid Siddiqui of the Lahore University of Management Sciences discussed the notion of quality education in Pakistan and stressed the need for more effective teacher education in order to bring qualitative improvement in education.

The notion of quality should encompass the physical and human resources available in a school together with what actually went on on in a classroom, he added.

He also referred to the curriculum, textbooks, assessment system and teaching in classrooms and governance as key factors crucial in determining the benchmarks of quality in any educational system.

He suggested improving the quality of teacher education programmes by not just focussing on pedagogical skills, but also by facilitating the change at conceptual and attitudinal levels.