Teaching reforms needed | Sindhi Adabi Board crisis
Teaching: drastic reforms needed
June 22: Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the ways and means to improve
the quality of education in Pakistan. There is a consensus that teacher
education can play a major role in enhancing the quality of education as
meaningful change is only possible through drastic reforms in teaching and
learning - for instance, professionally developed and trained teachers promise
an enriched classroom experience. Apparently there are tutor education courses
but interestingly, these courses work on various, and at times competing,
assumptions about all that comprises a model educator. A simple,
straightforward criterion for most school managements is that the best teacher
is one who produces the best results. Based on this simplistic principle, the
best school is, therefore, one that serves up the maximum number of 'A' grades.
This approach, though very convenient and popular with managers, is
limited to say the least as it remains partial towards the end-product, which is
potentially misleading - grades do occupy a central position as they are the
ultimate objective of students, parents, teachers and principals, but this extra
emphasis tends to underestimate the significance of the actual process of
teaching and learning. Since the competence of a teacher hinges on good
results, most educators are geared to perform better in the run up to exams. In
most cases, tricks of drilling do wonders as a majority of questionnaires are
based on memory recall questions, and regrettably, students require neither
thinking nor analytical skills, or a creative approach to achieve respectable
positions. So good teaching practices are largely shaped, and in some
cases, determined by our examination system. Interestingly, the reward system
announced for best teachers had a single criterion - the result of students.
Thus in the pursuit of becoming 'good' recognised teachers, they overlook the
process and keep the focus on the end-product i.e. the result.Traditionally
speaking, scholarship was considered the mark of a great teacher. Therefore, a
person with encyclopaedic knowledge was a guru and seekers of knowledge would
become apprentices to imbibe erudition from these great minds. It is,
however, observed, that there is no direct correlation between scholarship and
decent teaching. Another aspect that is almost absent, besides scholarship, is
the teaching modus operandi. In other words, pedagogy is of prime importance to
teachers. Instructors need to realise the significance of body language, decibel
levels, use of audiovisual aids, and the active involvement of students in the
teaching-learning process. A teacher must master content knowledge and
teaching techniques. The pedagogy factor was over-emphasised with a number of
so-called training courses and workshops mushrooming in countless professional
institutions. Some of these workshops focus on matters such as how to correct a
copy, with the result that the more holistic picture is missed and teachers are
turned into robotic technicians. An important manifestation of this approach is
the overuse of multimedia and power-point slides. With the advent of the
Internet a large amount of material, including lectures by professors,
professionally designed power-point presentations and pools of quizzes are
easily available. Some teachers lift the material and use it without proper
homework. This may seem convenient but teaching becomes highly mechanical,
making the teacher redundant and the whole teaching and learning process
programmed, cold and value-free. Humanists would believe that the
affective aspect is the most important component of good teaching. For them, a
caring, kind and humorous tutor can generate interest in class. This element of
interest and motivation would lead to enhanced and meaningful learning. A number
of studies looked at the attributes of effective teachers and one such study was
carried out by Eardle and Murray who looked at teaching behaviour factors that
correlate with overall effectiveness. According to this research, the top three
teaching behaviour factors that correlate with general efficiency include
rapport with students, interest, and disclosure. It is important to note that
'media use' appears at number 14. Interestingly, the top three teaching
behaviours belong to the perspective, supporting the humane face of teaching.
My observations of teachers suggest that whatever a teacher says and
does becomes curriculum for students as they see their teachers as role models.
A teacher who creates and sustains an enabling environment sets the stage for
meaningful learning that comes from and relates to everyday life. A good
teacher connects classroom learning with the outside world. In other words, an
educator should not turn into a mere technician who acts as a consumer of
knowledge. Our educational system is in desperate need of thinking teachers who
pursue constant professional growth. Thus any effort to improve education needs
to focus on tutors and on the ingredients of effective teaching. The
writer is a director at Lahore School of Economics and the author of Rethinking
Education in Pakistan. -shahidksiddiqui@yahoo.com
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Sindhi Adabi Board: Literature in crisis
Karachi: Unnecessary interference in the functioning of the Sindhi Adabi
(literary) Board (SAB) has resulted in an administration crisis because the
staff hired by previous authorities [ostensibly on political grounds] are under
pressure to quit their jobs, it has been learnt. This has led to protests by
people associated with publishing institutions who have been performing duties
as ordered by SAB officials. Their salaries, however, are routinely
withheld. Officials at the government-run SAB said that people who had
been deprived of their payments for various projects were protesting daily
outside the office, but the Board is unable to fulfil their demands due to lack
of resources. The SAB was formed in 1940 to promote literature in the
subcontinent. The idea was the brainchild of Sindhi nationalist leader, G.M
Syed, when he was the provincial education minister. After the Partition in
1947, the SAB was redesigned in 1957, and prolific and respectable writers and
scholars were hired to head the institution. The aims of the Board
include promoting literature produced in the Sindhi language and translating
historical texts produced in the Persian and English languages. The institute
had been doing well in the past, but the meagre grant of Rs10 million has been
affecting the functioning of the body, officials said, adding that they require
Rs14 million only to cover the salaries of SAB staff. In order to complete the
remaining projects, the SAB requires more funds which it does not have at
present. "Political appointments" are the reason why so many people had
been hired despite unsatisfactory performance, officials said, adding that these
people had been hired by various ministers and heads of the institution "to
please wellwishers". Although SAB Secretary Prof. Zawar Naqvi has managed
to sanction an additional Rs2 million annually using his family's influence, it
is insufficient to complete the pending projects of publishing books and
designing their website, he said. Most officials said that it is due to
the manipulation of funds allocated for different projects that the institution
has become a mess. Some recent projects assigned to the SAB included publishing
more books, translating texts, designing the website and uploading all the books
printed by the SAB during its 69-year history in order to facilitate people who
use these books as a source of reference. None of these projects could be
completed, however, because the process was allegedly marred by corruption.
Sources said that the former provincial government had allocated Rs8 million for
the purpose but the officials concerned could not achieve target. This
further went unnoticed when the new Pakistan People's Party (PPP)-led government
took control of the institution, rejected all former projects which they deemed
'useless' and designed new ones. When questioned about the inquiry initiated on
the directives of the PPP-led provincial education minister against the
manipulation of funds, SAB officials remained tight-lipped and said that it a
"routine matter". They added that all successive governments take such steps,
but later dump these processes in files. A renowned poet and critic, who
preferred to not be names, said that Sindh, which was known as the land of Sufis
and always promoted kindness, art, literature and culture in the past, is now
losing the values that it inherited. He blamed political favouritism, lack of
funds and the "shifting priorities" of the rulers, who now prefer promoting
bribery and dishonesty instead of art and literature. "They are the obvious
culprits behind the decline in Sindhi literature today, which was once known to
be very rich and powerful," he said. He added that the SAB was just one
example. A similar situation can be observed across all educational and literary
institutions in the province, he said, adding that skilled and creative staff
should be hired for a literary institution of calibre. The News
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