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We have seen successive governments promising to reform education system, but unfortunately no sincere effort has been made so for, contrarily successive government has worsened the situation by unnecessary political interference in education system. Local district level education department administration runs on the mercy of local MLAs and politician who have created groups in education department on party basis. There are serious issues, especially in government run institutions where the strength of the students have drastically reduced due to poor performance of teaching staff and district level education department administration. Transfers, appointments and promotions are done on political basis and teachers are more concerned to serve their local political leaders than to fulfill their professional responsibilities. There are serious issues, but can be resolved if problems are identified, diagnosed and appropriate corrective measures are taken without wasting more time. It is appropriate to first highlight the problems and then solutions for short and long term improvement of education system in AJK or even in any part of the world.
PROBLEMS AND ISSUES:
- Teachers appointment system.
- Teachers Training.
- Requirement oriented syllabus, continuous improvement required.
- Head of institution selection procedure.
- Lack of skills enhancement facilities.
- Lack of integration of religious schools with normal school system.
- Lack of creativity exploring opportunities.
- Lack of focus on character building.
- Lack of competitive facilities.
- Lack of facilities for extracurricular activities.
- Political interference in education department.
- Lack of monitoring expertise and skills.
- Lack of training for administrative and monitoring staff.
- Shortage of technical training institutes.
SOLUTIONS AND MEASURES REQUIRED FOR CURRENT PROBLEMS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN EDUCATION SYSTEM:
Nothing is impossible in today’s most advanced world where every single information is just one click away. There are best models available to give best performance, only will ,vision and appointment of right people for right task is required to achieve desired objectives. Let us discuss all above problems, one by one with appropriate solution for each.
1.Teachers appointment system: Teaching is a noble profession , which shapes the character of individual and hence plays most important role in character building and in broader sense in real nation building. A real teacher, knows the potential and aptitude of his pupils and trims his personality by guiding him accordingly .Following procedures if applied and implemented can produce best result in appointment of teachers.
- An independent board should conduct new teachers induction.
- Teachers appointment should be through open merit.
- Subject wise written test, with one additional paper for testing their general IQ, aptitude, interest with teaching profession and communication skill.
- Interview by an independent board to assess overall potential of the applicant.
2.Teachers Training: There is no institution or training center for teachers on district level. Teachers are appointed even as head of institutions without any management or administrative training. Following recommendations if applied and implemented can bring better results in improving teachers skill and level of their understanding.
- Establish one teacher training centre in each district.
- Nominate ten best teachers from each district as instructor for training.
- Arrange at least one training on any suitable topic after every three months.
- DEOs( District Education officer) should arrange and manage this training.
- Training instructor should be sent to globally recognized training institues for short courses.
3.Requirement oriented syllabus, continuous improvement required: This is the most important point which needs serious attention, so that syllabus is revised and continuously updated as per changing requirement of technological advancement and social changes in the society. Following measures can address this issue efficiently.
- A think tank comprising of renowned educationists, professionals and intellectual needs to formed under ministry of education which should review and upgrade syllabus as per requirement of the global market.
- Syllabus should focus on capacity building, skill enhancement and character building.
- Think tank should study best education models and prepare revised model with extraction from all.
4.Head of Institution/Headmasters Selection Procedure: Head of institution has to manage whole institution, which requires extraordinary administrative and management skills in addition to academic excellence. Any teacher who is promoted and appointed as head of institution on the basis of his seniority can. Following recommendations if implemented can bring excellent results for improvement.
- Head of institutions should be selected through open merit, not on seniority basis.
- Those who have extraordinary track record for management and administrative skills should only be considered.
- Head of institutions should be given periodic training to improve their management and administrative skills.
5.Lack of skills enhancement facilities: In most of the schools , neither teachers are trained nor there are facilities to enhance daily life skills in students. A student completing ten years of education hardly finds himself to work in a factory, office or even in his own farm. Following recommendations if implemented can bring good results for improvement in skills of students.
- There should be multi skill workshop in each school.
- Weekly 2-3 hours period for each class.
- Students should be asked to make any thing as per their aptitude.
- There should be special training for skills like, electrician, plumber, mason, carpenter, painter and gardening
6.Lack of integration of religious schools with normal school system: Because of parallel education systems, we are producing a divided society with two different thinking. In order to create harmony and brotherhood in the society we need to integrate religious schools with normal school system. Following measures could help us in this regard.
- Introduce English, maths and science in religious institutions.
- Introduce books for religious and ethenic harmony in all schools.
- Introduce essay, debate completions and workshops between islamic schools and ordinary schools.
7.Lack of creativity exploring opportunities: This is a very important issue and is not addressed in most of the schools .Majority of the God gifted potentials remain unexplored in most of the students and they usually opt profession which even they don’t like. No one in their schools or colleges even tried to explore their God gifted potential. In my view following recommendations would help to explore hidden potential of students anywhere in the world.
- Have a creative club in each school.
- Ask students to make, present their choices in this club.
- Ask students to prepare models, writings, paintings or anything which they like and submit in this club.
- Arrange competition for painting, debates, essay writing, sports, athletics and other daily activities to explore hidden potential of students.
- Have a diary for each student, showing his potential and areas of interest and aptitude.
8.Lack of character building: Purpose of education is to produce human beings to make this world a better place to live, but education without improvement in character building is producing commercially oriented masses which have no purpose in life and spend their lives like machines. Following measures needs to be implemented in true letter and spirit:
- While selecting teachers, special focus should be character and discipline of the
- Special motivational lectures be arranged for students in morning assemblies with special focus on basic human values like speaking truth, honesty, helping others on humanitarian grounds and justice for all.
- Puntuality, cleanliness and etiquettes for dressing at different occasions should be part of character building in schools.
9.Lack of competitive facilities: Competition and competitive environments helps youth to explore their potential. Following recommendations would help to achieve this purpose:
- DAEOs should give schedule for debates, essay writing, athletic and other sports competition of division level without effecting teaching schedule.
- This schedule could be during summer winter vocation or at the end of annual exams.
- Best debater, best athlete, best singer, best painter, best overall student should awarded with cash prizes.
- After district level, these competitions should be conducted on province level( in present case on AJK level)
10.Lack of facilities for extracurricular activities: In most of the schools there are very little facilities for sports and other extracurricular activities. Following recommendations would help to address this issue.
- Govt should provide /allocate reasonable space for each school/college to prepare a stadium.
- Instead of opening new schools old institutions should be equiped with basic sport facilities.
11.Lack of monitoring expertise and skills: Monitoring and controlling performance of schools is very important to improve performance of institutions and it needs certain skills and tools. In today’s communication age it is very easy provided the monitoring staff is trained and provided facilities accordingly. Following recommendations if implemented could bring positive rsult.
- Only those teachers should be appointed as DEOs/AEOs who have good management and administrative knowledge.
- Special training needs to be arranged for DEOs and AEOs.
- A schedule of inspection for each school and college be circulated quarterly and implemented punctually.
- Surprise inspection should also be conducted frequently.
- Poor performing schools indicating their weak areas be reported to director schools .
- Head of institutions having more than one year should be considered as responsible for poor performance.
- Director schools/colleges should get daily report from DEOs.
12.Lack of training for administrative and monitoring staff: At present there is no special institution available in whole AJK which can train DEOs , AEOs and other administrative staff for proper monitoring. In this regard I have following recommendations for improvement.
- For long term solution, at least one institution needs to be established to impart training to Head of institutions, Directors, DEOs and AEOs.
- This deficiency can be overcome by appointing people having special expertise and qualification for management .
- Adminstrative and monitoring staff needs to be sent to management training institutions in Pakistan for short duration courses.
13.Shortage of technical training institutes: When we are talking about issues of education system, shortage of vocational and technical training institute is also a major concern, due to which students after secondary education don’t find a useful path to follow. A very minor % who have good grades have chances to reach medical or engineering, whereas in actual almost 90 % of student, even with very low grade, opt for engineering and medical. Resultantly after failing in HSSC and wasting almost two years they look for other option.Following points if implemented can bring very good results for youth to get jobs at home and abroad as well.
- One vocational training and one polytechnic college needs to be opened in each tehseel.
- Retired personnel from technical branches of Armed forces can be used as instructors.
- At least 20% of budget allocated for education needs to be spent for technical training.
Political interference in education department: This is a serious concern which has destroyed government run institutions in Azad Kashmir. Following measures are recommended to minimize political interference.
- Create awareness among people to support merit in education department.
- Create awareness and propose procedures for appointments, transfers and promotions.
- Create awareness and pressure on government to pass bill for non interference of local politicians in schools and colleges.
Issues are complex and need continuous struggle with support of intellectuals and academia to bring change gradually in education department of Azad Jamun and Kashmir .
The End
Summary
Article Name
Problems In Education System And Measures Required For Improvement
Description
We have seen successive governments promising to reform education system, but unfortunately no sincere effort has been made so for, contrarily successive government has worsened the situation by unnecessary political interference in education system.
Author
MOHAMMAD KARIM
Publisher Name
Right Here At Home
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