Sustaining Teacher Professionalism in Pakistan - Essay Example

?Articles reviewed: Enhancing and sustaining teacherProfessionalism in PakistanMeherRizvi& Bob Elliott (2007) Rizvi and Elliot formulate structure and propose “a theory and not a foolproof recipe” to accomplish the task underscored. It highlights the problems related with and the reasons for the quality of education in primary schools in Pakistan. The research is conducted by the principle author, Rizvi. She is a Pakistani resident and Assistant Professor of Education in the Institute of Education at the Aga Khan University. She is able to play the role of the subjective observer and objective outsider since she has experienced living in her resident country and abroad. She carried out interviews and observations over the period of eight months. They were four case studies’ schools, but the individual case study of Alif Primary School is cited in the article. The author describes the state of the government education system in Pakistan to make an argument and discusses the nature and problems of reforming and sustaining teacher professionalism. This particular part of the article restricts itself to inform the reader about teacher’s participation in workshops, the attitude of the reformer school, and finally, the role of the principal to ensure that teachers maintain their professionalism after the workshops. While the article unravels the complexities of the matter, it is of essence that foundation is laid for teachers, eager to take part in reforming courses and implement what they have learnt on a daily basis. The “hybrid support structure” demonstrates this argument. It is a well-constructed concept. However, it fails to highlight and mention other factors that can affect the performance and professional attitude of teachers. Knowledge based on the workshops might help them cope in a classroom environment; but what determines the level of professionalism of teachers when they enter school premises? Politics between staff members is a major concern; the social background of teachers is not taken into consideration since in a city like Karachi, the population is made of people from varying social backgrounds Time and again, the article refers to its concept framework and the advantages of its implementation, but it fails to go into further depths of the matter. In a progressive country like Pakistan, there are more complex situations at the core of an educational system. Tensions in Teacher Training for School Effectiveness: The Case of PakistanLynn Davies &ZafarIqbal (July 1997) School Effective Research (SER) has emerged from virtual total obscurity to a now central position in the educational discourse that is taking place within countries (Teddies and Reynolds, 2000). In the light of this discourse, the article considered whether efficiency of schools is implicated by the influence of teacher training. Pakistan’s case study is exceptional since it continues teacher training, while increasing the autonomy of institutions. However, the inclusion may create strain and conflict to the research. The research is based on questionnaires answered by pre-service and in-service students and their tutors in a co-educational teacher training college. However, it shows that there were irregularities in the findings. The answers filled by the tutors did not match with those of the students. The problems highlighted were specific to the ones faced by the trainee in order to establish the relationship between the inefficiency of teachers’ training, and the mediocre performance of the trainee at work. It purposes to explain how teachers themselves are not 'autonomous learners' or 'reflective practitioners', and this particular attitude will trickle down to their students. Therefore, there is little or none evaluation of the current educational system and few propose to change it. The point that one particular case of training college cannot generalize the effectiveness in other parts of Pakistan is good evaluation. If we understood how those effective teachers teach, and how they came to learn to teach as they do, we could reduce the limitations imposed by inadequate finance and external environments (McGinn, 2010). It is simply not sufficient that teachers are taught about learning but can they know enough to bring about a change in the stunted education system of Pakistan? Teachers need to be considered important agents in the system rather than employees of it. Delivering Girls’ Education in PakistanAyesha Shaukat (September 2009) In the research paper, Shaukat emphasizes on the importance of the role of charitable organizations like Oxfam in Pakistan, where in remote rural areas the marginalized are denied opportunities for education. In Pakistan, parents are still apprehensive to send their daughters to school because of cultural or religious misconceptions embedded deep within society. Through quantitative research, the author supports her argument, primarily signifying unequal educational development in case of girls. This is a matter of significance since women make forty-eight percent of the population, yet basic right of education is not met. In brief, it also explains that since the education system lacks of implementation of government policy, qualified teachers, and infrastructure, Oxfam has begun concentrating efforts to understand the underlying cause of girls’ deprivation.It monitors government’s progress, in addition to motivating individuals in rural areas to make their own choices. However, it refers to another aspect in the case of Education in Pakistan; does the question of qualified teachers even matter when they are not even schools in the first place. Can beggars be choosers? The paper gives an overview and context of the educational institution that allows assessment and solving problems faced by girls deprived of education. However, the paper falls short to perhaps talk about concerns like what sort of education will it provide; what will the curriculum be? The curriculum should be carefully constructed as to not alienate the students from what they already know while preparing them to compete side by side with students from more esteemed institutions. An example of such an institution is the Teach A Child (TAC) operating in Lahore, Pakistan. It takes minimal fee, yet it provides quality level education. After being aware of the situation of Pakistan from 1950’s, it is high time for implementation, that too in an efficient way. The first two articles were significant to highlight particular matters within the education system. To maintain teacher professionalism and to question efficiency of training programs is an important concern; an active role played by teachers can eliminate derivative of poor or no infrastructure. However, the question is, are we at liberty to question such matters when there are more crucial concerns for the state of education. How and where should we allocate limited resources? Summary: Education for All (EFA) is an international initiative first launched in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990 to bring the benefits of education to “every citizen in every society.” In order to realize this aim, a broad coalition of national governments, civil society groups, and development agencies such as United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCOand the World Bank committed to achieving six specific education goals which relates to : early childhood care, primary education, youth and adult learning, literacy , gender equality and education quality. However, after a decade of slow progress, the international community reaffirmed its commitment to EFA in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000 and again in September of that year. Although there has been steady progress towards achieving many EFA goals, challenges remain. Today, there are about 77 million children of school age, including 44 million girls, who are still not in school due to financial, social, or physical challenges, including high fertility rates, HIV/AIDS, and conflict. Additionally, pupil/teacher ratios in many countries exceed 40:1 and many primary teachers lack adequate qualifications. Introduction: It is understandable that EFA cannot be achieved without improving the quality of education and teachers are of the critical factors in ensuring the quality, especially in developing countries where suspected low achievement of students and massive educational instability are persistent in stumbling in achieving EFA goals. Although the importance of quality of teaching has been constantly emphasized little priority seems to have been given in educational policies throughput many countries. Especially in less developed countries a large number of unqualified teachers are recruited with an absence of sufficient support in order to meet the rapid expansion of student enrolment over the last few decades. Consequently this has negatively impacted in student’s achievements. Most teachers in the world can empathize with the purpose oflearning to live with and to respect others, as well as learning to develop as persons. These are related to their moral commitment to teaching. They also understand the importance for learning. But many teachers find it difficult to understand what the new psychology of knowledge has to say about teaching and learning, what the cognitive development needs of students are, and how teachers should consider these when they teach. Many teachers need themselves to be helped to learn how to learn and this entails the need to understand how teachers learn. In this essay I will examine theidiosyncrasies of teaching and teacher’s quality and the important of teacher’s status in improving overall quality Education in the context of Pakistan. Pakistan and Education: Even though Pakistan’s education system has expanded substantially since independencein 1947, debate continues about the quality of education particularly inGovernment schools (Retallick& Farah, 2005). Of the 20 million children in the agegroup 5 to 9 years old, approximately 12 million enroll in schools but 50% drop outbefore completing primary education (Ministry of Education, 1998).Schooling is provided in Pakistan by a range of different systems of varying qualityand these include: A Government system of primary and secondary school, A private school system (community, non-profit and for-profit schools), A religious school (madrassah) system.In the private school sector, principals, teachers, students, and community taketheir schools rather seriously. Madrassahs follow a curriculum heavily dominated byreligious subjects (SPDC, 2003). However, the Government has started redesigningmadrassahs’ curriculum to also include secular subjects. The major problems with the quality of education in Pakistan are to be found inthe Government school system (ICG, 2004) that caters for four out of five childrenwho attend school. A significant cause of the crises in quality of education is theextent of poverty in Pakistan. Pakistan ranks 68 out of 174 countries in the HumanPoverty Index (SPDC, 2000). Pakistan’s expenditure on education of 1.8% of GDP(SPDC, 2003) seems to indicate that education is not accorded the protectionenjoyed by other social institutions (Hoodbhoy, 1998). Other factors contributing tothe ineffectiveness of the Government education system in Pakistan are political andbureaucratic interference, lack of accountability and sound management practices,and lack of high quality teacher and staff training (Bergman & Mohammad, 1998). Additionally, despite recent improvements in education provision and numerous policies and actions plans to that all citizens have the right to go to school, Pakistan’s progress on achieving the EFA goals by 2015 has been considered ‘off tracts’.Pakistan included among the 29 countries which are not likely to achieve EFA goals by 2015. A number of factors have affected with respect to achievement of EFA goals. This includes Commitment Gap, poor financing in Education, Missing facilities, rising population of illiterate, Political inference and Educational Governance. Teachers Development: “The teacher is considered the most crucial factor in implementing all educational reforms at the grassroots level.” National Education Policy 1998 2010 Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan P 7 Statistics It has been observed that in Pakistan, it is the duty of the state to provide elementary education. Considering this aspect, investments by the public sector have been much apparent in its investments that are related to the urban, as well as the rural areas (Smith, 1997). The investment has therefore been in both, formal as well as informal education establishments. As for the private sector, its participation has also been recorded of small scale made in urban areas at the most. Other than that, NGOs also work towards providing education in Pakistan that is mostly primary education and contains systems that are formal as well as informal in nature (Lynd, 2007). The respective GNI and population in comparison with other countries can be seen in more detail in the appendix A. In 2000, statistics stated a total amount of 162,076 schools that are primary in nature consisted of enrolment rate of about 15.8 million students, whereas the figure of teachers amounted to 332,022. Therefore, the ratio of student and teacher amounted to 48:1. Considering the presence of females, it was reported that the number of females in a total of 35%-38% schools contained female teachers in majority. The middle school amounted to a total number of 18,435 and had an enrolment rate of 4 million students and 95,249 teachers. Here, the ratio of student and teacher totalled to 43:1 (Ministry Of Education, 2003). The primary and middle school profiles can be seen in more detail in the appendix B. In 2006, a total of 36 million students were being catered to by the education system of Pakistan. From the earlier stated numbers, a percentage of 95 made almost 34 million students studying at the level of basic education, pre-primary all the way to the higher secondary (policy and planning wing, 2005). Statistics of these and percentage of students by level of education can be seen in more detail in the appendix C and D. Considering the teaching side of education, statistics have stated that a total of 1.3 million teaching posts were available at the basic education level that included that pre-primary to higher secondary level. It was observed that out of the earlier number, almost 90 percent of these positions were filled where 3.5% held the contract positions nature and 6.5% as vacant. As for the level of higher secondary, the vacancy rate stated a percentage of 9 percent. Taking the pre-primary level out of the calculation, the rate of vacancy of other levels amounted to a percentage of 6 (Gov of Pakistan, 2012) (Appendix E) According to the data presented by the NEC (2001), there were a huge number of teachers that were in the private sector, nearly 50 percent that were short of qualifications professionally, and therefore were in need of training. As for the public sector, the professional qualification in these teachers was different as only 5% were reported to have no training. It was reported after examining the data that information was rather less, therefore it could only be assumed that most of the untrained teachers were present at the levels of lower education (Appendix F). Changes in Teachers Beliefs If we take a look at the curricula with which the education is provided by the teachers to the students, it has been observed that the same curricula is quite outdated as well as fragmented, which means that it is not relevant at all with the needs of the system of education. As far as Pedagogy is concerned, it occurs after the training program and is therefore not put into practice before that. Considering the teacher, research states that the preparation by the teachers teaching at the educational institutions has been recorded as insufficient which ignores the need for an academic quality (Messina, 1998), (Avalos, 2000). In such a situation, whenever the word change is brought under discussion in the colleges, normal schools, or schools of education, the teachers come across an inertia condition called as institutional inertia. This means that the teachers come across several barriers whilst changing a certain setup. The list of barriers include the likes of the overall system, bureaucratic restraints, as well as the personal dislike towards change as they do not prefer changing a certain status quo. On the other hand, those institutions that are in favour of change often find themselves devoid of sufficient tools as well as knowledge to bring about certain change, and therefore cannot even examine the change conditions. Considering the recent changes, there has been a focus on bringing a change in the level of primary teachers through training institutions. It has been observed that a change in the entry qualification has been observed that indicates the approximated length of the program. A change in the control system has also been observed because of an expansion in the system of education, as well as the social orientations. In such a scenario, the institutions have now started taking measures that were traditionally not supported, which has therefore started to change the way teachers think as well (Avalos, 2000). The teachers now, are more involved in what traits are necessary for their performance that defines them in the workplace as well. It has been observed that these profiles are not completely different from the traditional way of work, but they do however highlight more awareness on the part of the teacher to state which kind is more competent. This way is also slowly redefining the way society thinks of a teacher and therefore demands. The overall change in the belief of teacher has therefore changed in attitudinal as well as ethical aspects of performance, where the earning objectives are more stressed upon. The earlier stated is therefore focused more than how the delivery method should be carried out, and has adopted a more investigative and reflective attitude than before. The teachers in urban areas have started to relate to diversity and have also begun to understand how to deal with it. School-community links are also advocated in the recent times (Avalos, 2000) Teachers Quality, What makes a difference (what sort of qualities should a teacher have) The journey of a teacher throughout the continuum must possess the basic understanding about the content they aim to teach. Other than that, a quality teacher must be aware of the instructional strategies and its quality, the dealings related to children that belong to different backgrounds, abilities, gender, and culture that directly affect the decision making of the teacher (UNESCO, 1998). A quality teacher must be able to handle all kinds of demands that are constantly increasing as well as the fact that they must be able to handle change and its implementation, and provide solutions that are fresh, creative, and must be implemented with skill when problems occur (Hargreaves, 1999; UNESCO, 1998). This kind of teachers must be able to collaborate with every variable in the organization and be aware of the required reflection over the demands related to the social and cultural factors, as well as the challenges present in the environment they perform their work in (Zeichner & Liston, 1991). Overall, the system that develops a quality teacher must be able to team up every actor involved in the context of teaching, such as the teacher, their educators, and the policy makers as well as the community (Hargreaves, 1999; Young, 1999; UNESCO, 1998). The overall continuum, therefore, hold teachers who continuously strive to improve and learn to achieve a learning process that will help them in their professional aspirations fully assisted by the continuum (Feiman & Remillard, 1996). Teachers Education (Pre-Teaching education, Pre Service education, Teachers Induction, In-service training) As far as the teacher’s education is concerned, it has been observed that this factor is rather highly stratified. Every teacher present has been observed to have different qualifications; the institutions also have different levels of qualifications needed to teach the various levels of school (Westbrook, Nazneen, Durrani, Tikly, Khan and Dunne, 2009). As far as the trainings are concerned, studies refer to the in-service training as highly irregular and rather varied. The trainings are viewed as very theoretical and rigid as well if the classifications related to disciplines of philosophy, history, or sociology is concerned (Rugh, Malik &Farooq, 1991). Other than that, the system has observed a lot of cramming for the exam required for the trainees after training, that result in unfair methods of passing, such as cheating and cramming. This is so, because this exam has the entire effort relying on it and the performance therefore depends on the performance of this paper alone. Further, it has been observed that those teachers that are B.Ed. can be easily selected for the position of the teacher, which is an unsuitable criteria set for the selection of teachers. It has therefore been seen that the experience held by the teachers is not taken into account (Westbrook, Nazneen, Durrani, Tikly, Khan and Dunne, 2009). Teacher leadership in Curriculum Design Considering the teacher leadership, teachers find it difficult to communicate issues to the higher authorities. This has been taken as a cultural question and brought into question a lot of times as it should be removed to ensure greater flow of information for coordination and better outputs. According to studies, the presence of this kind of hesitation is not new to the culture of Pakistan because the entire system of this country inculcates a system of power backed by highly knitted networks of bureaucracy in public sector. Therefore, this system is bound to affect the teaching styles (Davies and Iqbal, 1997). According to a study conducted by Warwick, Nauman and Reimers (1992), with teachers having no say in what they teach, the innovation level in teaching is near to zero. For innovation to foster in teaching of Pakistan it is imperative to inculcate the thought of thinking out of the box and not penalising the teachers if they do so. Where teachers do not have a say in curriculum setting as well, it was is seen that the teachers are usually ill prepared for a teaching session, as rote memory in place of experimentation was something that did not suite them at all. The teachers were also seen wary of the way teaching delivery included the sale of old syllabus in education. Overall, the teachers are not encouraged at all to follow a research based method of teaching that has hindered the development of contemplative experts, much apparent in the western side of studies. Gender Equity As far as gender equity is concerned, the female population of teachers are often seen following a reproductive role rather than a productive one. This is so, because there is a gender division throughout the country developed through the male elites (Chafetz, 1990; Moser, 1993). Therefore, a female teacher faces more lack of opportunities when it comes to going over to the forma economy. It has also been observed that as these female teachers also hold other concerns, they do not negotiate more while taking salaries and are willing to accept less money as compared to males of the same profession (UNESCO, 2010). According to a survey conducted by PSLM, the literacy of the girls as compared to boys is much less. As for the urban and rural areas, the rate is higher in the former. Still, the rate of literacy in women is less in both the urban and rural areas of the country. Gender disparity is therefore much apparent in almost every province of Pakistan. When district levels are taken into consideration, the disparities are very apparent in some districts. Examples of such are Jacobabad where this rate is 9 percent for females, as compared to 50 percent for males. In Kohistan district, the conditions are recorded worst with 6% female literacy and a 50% male (Barr, 2004) (Appendix G). Gender Equality It has been observed that as many females in Pakistan are not allowed to study in schools unless and until there is a female teacher present, it is therefore important that no gender disparity in teachers reside (Riemers, 2003). According to statistics, a total number of 425,445 teachers are currently providing services in Pakistan out of which there are a total of 47% female teachers as compared to 53% male teachers. From a comparison study, it was therefore concluded that there are more female teachers than male teachers in areas of Punjab, AJK and ICT (UNESCO, 2010). It was also observed that urban areas have more female teachers than rural areas where a total of 61% teachers are male. Of course, it does not account for the diversity seen in the provinces; places like Sindh have a percentage of 86 in rural areas which are male, whereas, the teachers in Punjab, AJK and ICT are equal to the number of girls studying in the schools (UNESCO,2010) (Appendix H). Teachers’ Salaries and Conditions of working When motivation of teachers is concerned, things like salary and infrastructure play a very important role. According to a study conducted by Warwick and Reimers, (1991), teachers in Pakistan are not at all attracted to this profession as this is one of the least paid professions. The female teachers work in this area of profession because it is considered a safe career, which involves working with children, very similar to how the profession of medicine is taken. With that said, teaching is also attractive to them because it is easier to handle it with their job as homemakers (Ali, 1998). As for males, they choose teaching when there are no other options left, usually choosing it along with another job. This is so because the salaries provided to the individuals is very low (Ali, 2000). As for infrastructure, with the urban areas having definite settings that meet the basic requirement, the rural areas do not have even that, which mixed with low salaries, makes it a highly unattractive package. This is one of the reasons many teachers do not go and teach in the rural areas (Ali, 1998). Schools without selected faculties in 2006 and percentage of schools with electricity level in 2006 can be seen in Appendix I and J. It has been observed by various studies that the teachers of Pakistan have been performing rather poorly with very low quality. Since 1959, this problem has been identified as well as highlighted as a shortcoming in a report of National Commission on Education, Government of Pakistan (GoP). Still, there has not been any practical solution provided that has actually dealt with the identified problem and GoP has been focusing more on the system rather than those actual problems residing deep within which are the real root causes. The GoP is currently handling teacher education programs being run by institutes that do not possess the level required to actually enhance the knowledge as well as skills of the teachers so that it can effectively work on the learning of the student. As far as the curriculum is concerned, these programs fall short of growth of the pedagogical skills needed in the teachers, the knowledge of the content, the delivery to be carried out in the classroom, as well as the skills required for questioning so that the courses/programs become worthwhile with the help of these skills (USAID, 2006). It has also been observed that the training programs currently provided to the teachers are different throughout the country and also less in the frequency provided. There have been many government organizations that are handing out education to teachers in the form of trainings, and are seen as initiating a restructured mandate. These programs, however, do not have any management or supervision and are very low in frequency, where every department and institution follows its own goals and objectives. Due to this kind of behaviour, the education system faces a deficient teaching program, hampering the development of teachers and failing to give them any education that depicts the failure of the institution. The acceptable levels are far more than the one being provided right now and does not have any collaborations or even linkages, along with nil methods of teaching in its existence. Overall, these institutions do not have a single ruling body above them that work towards providing guidance and direction to the institutions so that they could enhance their affectivity in order to achieve maximum output, along with greater monitoring of processes for greater quality (USAID, 2006). Considering the developments related to this teaching, many studies have been conducted to identify the steps taken for the development of this area. The results obtained have therefore identified that the development of the teachers depends on some notable factors. These factors include the likes of the educational qualification level of the teachers; recruitment that is done and based upon merit; sufficient amount of monitoring system that focuses on teacher performance; incentives, continuous development of teacher skills as well as growth oriented career structure. Researches also state that many studies have worked towards identifying the issues from both, macro as well as micro level, which have also been able to provide effective solutions. However, there has been no sound implementation till now and that is exactly the next step for the institutions to carry out. The corrective actions taken, as well as the required strategy identified, will eventually work with each other to raise the level of quality of the teachers. For such a process to take place, the institutions that provide teacher training must work on specific identified policies and guidelines that must be standardized for all areas in the country. The guidelines will also work towards assessing the problems. Other than that, laws are also needed that aims to hit those areas that need necessary changes required for the identified strategies to be implemented (USAID, 2006). Conclusion: Therefore, the conditions in Pakistan for teaching are very low. In a progressive country like Pakistan, there are more complex situations at the core of an educational system. Knowledge based on the workshops might help them cope with such situations in an environment like this; but we need to ask ourselves about the conditions that determine the level of professionalism of teachers when they enter school premises. It has also been observed that politics between staff members is a major concern. We also need to understand how teachers themselves are not 'autonomous learners' or 'reflective practitioners', and this particular attitude will trickle down to their students. Therefore, there is little or no evaluation of the current educational system, and few propose to change it. The point that one particular case of training college cannot generalize the effectiveness in other parts of Pakistan is good evaluation. Other than that, parents are still apprehensive to send their daughters to school because of cultural or religious misconceptions embedded deep within the society. Many researches have supported the fact that primarily signifying unequal educational development is the case with girls. This is a matter of significance since women make forty-eight percent of the population, yet basic right of education is not met. Appendix: A) B) C) D) E) F) G) H) I) J) References: Ali, M.A., 1998. Trends in School Supervision, Supervision for Teacher Development: A Proposal for Pakistan. International Institute for Educational Planning. UNESCO, Paris. Ali, M.A., 2000. Supervision for teacher development: an alternative model for Pakistan. International Journal of Educational Development 20 (3), 177–188. Avalos, B., International Journal of Educational Research, Chapter 1, Policies for teacher education in developing countries, Ministerio de Educacion, Division de Education Superior, Santiago, Chile, 2000 Barr, J Factors contributed by community organizations to the motivation of teachers in rural Punjab, Pakistan, and implications for the quality of teaching, International Journal of Educational Development 25 (2005) 333–348, 2004 Chafetz, J., 1990. Gender Equity: an Integrated Theory of Stability and Change. Sage Publications, London Davies, L &Iqbal, Z (1997): Tensions in Teacher Training for School Effectiveness: The Case of Pakistan?, School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, 8:2, 254-266 Feiman, N &Remillard, N.The place for alternative certification in the education for teachers, teachers education monograph, No. 14, ERIC Clearinghouse, 1996 Gov of Pakistan, Pakistan, http://www.moe.gov.pk/Facts%20&%20Figures/chap%201.pdf, 2012 Hargreaves, A, Development and desire: a post-modern perspective Lynd, D. The Education System in Pakistan, Assessment of the National Education Census, UNESCO Islamabad, Pakistan, 2007 Messina, G. (1998), UNESCO, Regional Latin America and the Caribbean Ministry Of Education, National Plan of Action on Education for All (2001-2015) Pakistan, Government of Pakistan, March 2003 Policy and planning wing, Ministry Of Education, The state of education in Pakistan 2003-2006, 2005 Riemers, E.V, Teacher Professional development: an international revire of the literature, UNESCO, 2003 Rizvi, M & Elliott, B. Enhancing and sustaining teacher professionalism in Pakistan, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 13:1, 5-19, 2007 Rugh, A.B., Malik, A.N., R.A. Farooq, 1991. Teaching Practices to Increase Student Achievement: Evidence from Pakistan. BRIDGES Research Report Series No. 8. Institute for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Smith, R.L., 1997. Implementing qualitative research in Pakistan: International teamwork. In: Crossley, M., Vulliamy, G. (Eds.), Qualitative Educational Research in Developing Countries: Current Perspectives. Garland Publishing, New York, pp. 245–264. The National Economic Council (NEC), The Ten Year Perspective Development Plan 2001-2011, 2001 UNESCO, Gender Equality and Education in Pakistan, 2009 UNESCO, Why Gender Equality in Basic Education in Pakistan? 2010 UNESCO,World education Report, 1998, teachers and teaching in the changing world, Paris, 1998, UNESCO USAID, Situation Analysis of Teacher Education: Towards A Strategic Framework For Teacher Education And Professional Development Pakistan, 2006 Warwick, D.P., Nauman, H., Reimers, F.M., 1992. Teacher Training and School Effectiveness in Pakistan. Development Discussion paper No. 397. Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Warwick, D.P., Reimers, F., 1991. Influences on Academic Achievement in Pakistan: Students, Teachers and Classrooms. Bridges School Effectiveness Studies. Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Westbrook.B, Nazneen S, Durrani, N, Tikly, C, Khan, W, Dunne, M, Becoming a teacher: Transitions from training to the classroom in the NWFP, Pakistan, International Journal of Educational Development, 437–444, 2009 World Bank, accessed online on 3oth April, 2012 Read More