Alif Ailaan, SAHE launch study: Teachers' problems in delivering quality education highlighted

Alif Ailaan launched a groundbreaking study on Thursday, making an effort to identify the problems being faced by male and female teachers across the country in delivering quality education. Alif Ailaan is a non-governmental organisation and works for promotion of education.
Teachers in Pakistan, especially government school teachers, are often blamed for virtually everything that is wrong with the country's educational system. In fact people know little about ordinary Pakistani teachers, the challenges they face and the support they need to do their job properly. The study aims at changing the perception about teachers. There are nearly 1.4 million teachers in the country, split evenly across the public and private sectors.
The Voice of Teachers, a groundbreaking study of Pakistani teachers, talks to the men and women who are charged with the task of educating the country's children, often under the most difficult circumstances. Conducted by the Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE) in partnership with Alif Ailaan, the study is based on an extensive survey of more than 1,250 teachers and head teachers in government and private schools.
"Teachers have a central role to play in efforts to reform the country's education system," said Abbas Rashid, Executive Director of SAHE and one of the co-authors of the study. "Our survey is an attempt to find out what teachers think about the problems plaguing the education sector and, importantly, about their role in providing quality education to Pakistan's children," he said.
The survey interviewed 1,264 teachers (823 teachers and 441 head teachers) from 634 government and private schools in 15 districts, covering urban and rural areas in all the four provinces. Its findings challenge many of the myths surrounding Pakistan's teaching workforce.
The vast majority of government school teachers acknowledge that absenteeism and 'ghost teachers' are a serious problem, saying such practices give honest teachers a bad reputation and make their work more difficult. Similarly, most of the teachers said it was not the salaries/benefits that motivated them rather the status of teachers in society and their desire to work with children was the driving force.
The study also delves into issues that have received public attention in recent years: political interference, the role of teachers' associations, recruitment, transfers and postings. Most government teachers said they were hired on merit, with just 20 percent reporting that their recruitment did not follow official procedure and just one percent were using political influence.
Among the issues that hamper a teachers' ability to perform effectively are overcrowded classrooms, multi-grade teaching, poor quality textbooks, and the lack of facilities and equipment. For government school teachers, non-teaching duties is a source of major concern.
Teachers in the survey claimed that they spend an average of 53 days a year on non-teaching duties. Despite these and many other challenges, an overwhelming majority of teachers reported that they are satisfied with their jobs. "It is easy to blame teachers for the failures of the education system," said Saman Naz, Alif Ailaan Research Director. "But our findings tell a different story. While there are teachers who renege on their duties and abuse the system, they are by no means in majority," she said.