Increased allocations for education: teachers urged to successfully persuade politicians

The teachers unions must play their vital role in mobilising teachers and transforming the fate of the country. This was the consensus among speakers at a dialogue organised by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in connection with the World Teachers Day at Children's Library Complex on Friday. The teachers' community must persuade politicians to make education their top priority and make it their slogan for the forthcoming elections.
ITA director programmes Dr Baela Raza Jamil said the demand for quality teachers was very high but were in short supply across the country. She said the learning level of students in public as well as private schools in rural parts of the country were abysmally low and there was a big room for improvement. She said sustained enrolment was a big issue in public sector schools and only imparting of quality education could hold children back in schools.
Referring to ASER survey 2011 report, she said, some 40 per cent classes were offering multi-grade education and stressed that all classes should be separated by improving classrooms and teachers' strength. After the 18th Constitutional Amendment and inclusion of Article 25-A, she said a massive responsibility had fell on respective provinces' shoulders to enact law and ensure free and compulsory education for 5-16 years of age children. She said the Islamabad Capital Territory had introduced a law, while Punjab had constituted a Commission to formulate a draft law to make education free and compulsory.
She, however, observed that the Commission must not hold closed-door meetings and instead public the draft and let all stakeholders give their inputs. Ali Institute of Education director Dr Shahid Majeed said the teachers' status needed to be upgraded by offering lucrative salaries as this measure alone could make teaching a "choiced profession". "If government can give double salary to motorway police, why it can't give double salary to teachers," he asked. He said the teachers should also exercise a freedom to teach his children on the basis of curriculum instead of rigidly following textbooks. ITA Director Research Dr Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal said teachers could play a dominant role in shaping the destinies of individuals as well as developing societies despite the proliferation of information technology.