Impact of National Professional Standards on teachers’ performance

• In Event: Teaching in diversity

Proposal

The issue of education in the public sector of Pakistan is well debated. In the last two decades concrete measures have been taken by the government to improve the overall education system by specifically focusing on the quality of teacher education. National Education Policy 2009 maintained that teacher education is a basic determinant of quality education because how the teachers teach in the class is directly related to the learning of the children and these two combine to translate quality education.
In 2009 National Professional standards for teachers were introduced and since then many interventions have been made to improve teacher preparation programs which are intended to improve teaching quality at primary school level. Yet the reports do not clarify the extent of improvement or impact of these interventions.
The past two National Education Policies of 1998 and 2009 highlighted one major point that the quality of education at schools is directly related to the quality of teaching and teacher preparation programs. During the year 2009 a significant reform in teacher education and teaching was initiated in the form of National Professional Standards for teachers. This step not only made teaching profession more sophisticated in terms of having set standards but also embarked teacher education institutions to re-think their programs in the light of these standards. In 2018 when the new and reformed teacher education programs have not only completed their early years but their graduates are working in schools; a study was initiated to assess whether the teacher education programs offered after the introduction of National Professional Standards can be considered successful in developing the desired skills among primary school teachers.
The National Education Census (NEC) 2005 data and a number of studies indicate that professional preparation of teachers in Pakistan is neither standardized nor based on acceptable professional standards. The NEC data indicates that 26% of teachers in the workforce are untrained, 37% have only rudimentary training at the Primary Teacher Certificate (PTC) and Certified Teacher (CT) levels, 44 % have not completed even a two year undergraduate degree beyond 12 years of basic education. These constitute by any measure, least qualified teachers, and the majority of them are teaching at the primary school level in rural areas. Some educationists reported even a more dismal picture of professional qualifications of teachers at the primary level, where only 21 % have completed Bachelors in Education (B.Ed) and Masters in Education (M.Ed) degrees.
Ahmad, Rauf, Rashid, Rehman, & Salam, (2013) presented a critical review of literature in which they analyzed the problems of primary education system in Pakistan highlighting lack of professional development of primary school teachers while stating that there are less training facilitates available to teachers at primary level in Pakistan. Due to lack of latest knowledge and skills the teachers are found weak in solving the problems of students in the teaching learning process. The findings of their study reported that there is no effective mechanism of teacher training in Pakistan.
Another study conducted by Saeed & Mahmood (2002) on assessment of the competency level of primary school teachers in mathematics, science and pedagogy reported that the primary school teachers were below average in the content knowledge of mathematics and science and lacked in the required pedagogical skills for teaching this level.
Keeping this in view the researcher aimed to evaluate and analyze the impact of National Professional Standards on primary school teaching for which the perceptions of head teachers were recorded regarding performance of primary school teachers graduating before and after the introduction of National Professional Standards and the observable differences in the practices of these primary school teachers were also identified. Two hypotheses were developed in the light of the objectives i) H0: There is no significant difference between the perception of head teachers about the performance of primary school teachers graduating before and after 2012. ii) H0: There is no significant difference in the practices of primary school teachers graduating before and after the introduction of National Professional Standards.
The impact of National Professional Standards couldn’t be directly assessed therefore an integrated approach to impact analysis was adopted and multiple data sources were included. The study was conducted in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.Schools where the graduates of new teacher education programs are working were involved in this study. The target population of the study was Head Teachers (at the schools where graduates of Teacher Education programs inducted after 2012 holding Associate Degree in Education (ADE) or Bachelors in Education (B.Ed),Primary School Teachers of the same schools from which Head Teacher was selected. Multistage sampling was done for the collection of data at two stages through questionnaire and observation.
Stage 1: Proportionate random sampling for Data collection through Questionnaire
• Head Teachers: 20% of the target population
Stage 2: Purposeful sampling for data collection through observation
• Primary School Teachers: working with any 5 head teachers in the selected cities (equivalent group of graduates before and after 2012)
To verify the null hypotheses 't-test' was applied to calculate the difference of means. The results revealed significant difference in the perceptions of the head teachers about the performance of primary school teachers graduating before and after 2012. The observation of teachers based on National Professional Standards reflected significant differences in the performance of primary school teachers inducted before and after 2012. It was concluded that the head teachers were more satisfied with the performance of teachers inducted after 2012. The teachers who were trained according to National Professional Standards (inducted after 2012) exhibited better use of instructional planning and pedagogical skills by incorporating information communication technologies according to the need of the lesson, whereas delivery of subject matter knowledge of both inductees of 2012 and before was almost the same. The study provided an insight into the performance of teachers at primary school level and indicated the areas in which the primary school teachers who were trained before the introduction of National Professional Standards lacked. The study further gave recommendations for the capacity development of the workforce inducted before the launching of professional standards.

Authors

• Sidra Rizwan, Allama Iqbal Open University

• Afshan Huma, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan