3. Introduction
Elementary education is typically the first stage of compulsory education,
coming between early childhood education and secondary education.
According to the Constitution of Pakistan it is mandatory for the government
to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of
5-16 years and enhance adult literacy.
With the 18th constitutional amendment the concurrent list which comprised
of 47 subjects was abolished and these subjects, including education, were
transferred to federating units as a move towards provincial autonomy
4. FEMALE EDUCATION
Having an education is a fundamental right of every citizen, but gender
discrepancies still exist in the educational sector.
According to the 2011 Human Development Report of the United Nations
Development Program, approximately twice as many males as females receive
a secondary education in Pakistan, and public expenditures on education
amount to only 2.7% of the GDP of the country
5. Gender roles in Pakistan
Patriarchal values heavily govern the social structure in Pakistani society.
Specifically, a woman is expected to take care of the home as wife and
mother, whereas the male dominates outside the home as a breadwinner.
Men and women are conceptually segregated into two distinct worlds. The
household resources are allocated in the favor of sons due to their role in
society outside the home.
Therefore, education for boys is prioritized over girls, because it is perceived
that boys must be equipped with educational skills to compete for resources
in the public arena; while girls have to specialize in domestic skills to be good
mothers and wives.
Hence, education is not perceived as being important for girls.
6. Importance of female education
Education has been of central significance to the development of human
society. It can be the beginning, not only of individual knowledge,
information and awareness, but also a holistic strategy for development
and change.
Education is very much connected to women's ability to form social
relationships on the basis of equality with others and to achieve the
important social good of self-respect.
7. Rural vs. Urban
In year 2006, the literacy rate in urban areas was recorded 58.3% while in
rural areas it was 28.3%, and only 12% among rural women.
An interesting factor in this context is that female enrollment was
recorded highest at the primary level, but it progressively decreases at the
secondary, college and tertiary levels.
It was estimated that less than 3% of the 17–23 age group of girls have
access to higher education.
8. Role of government in female education
Officially the government of Pakistan is committed to provide every citizen an
access to education, but critics say that its budget allocation towards
education does not correspond with its former commitment.
The expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was 1.82% in 2000–
2001, while it has been raised slightly in 2006–2007 to 2.42%, and it is still
relatively lower than most neighboring countries.
Feminist economists argue that the government of Pakistan needs to fully
address and resolve the gender concerns that exist in the educational sector
9. DROPOUT
A dropout is defined as ―any student who leaves school for any reason before
graduation or completion of a program of studies without transferring to
another elementary or secondary school.
While the number of out-of-school children (OOSC) in Pakistan has decreased
by 1 million ─ from 25 million to 24 million ─ and dropout rates have
decreased over last year, almost half of all children between the ages of five
and 16 are out of school and more than 18million have never seen the inside
of a classroom.
Gender disparity is also evident in school enrolment rates, with over half of
all girls out of school compared to 43% of boys.
10. Enrolment remains the greatest challenge
Nearly 24million ─ 47% ─ of Pakistan‘s estimated 51million children between
the ages of five and 16 are out of school.
While the dropout rate is a serious concern, enrolment remains the major
challenge
11. CURRICULUM
Word curriculum is derived from Latin word which is the combination of two
words:
• Curricula……………race
• Um……………..……place Curriculum means ―place for race.
Curriculum development or transformation is one of the critical challenges of
any successful institution.
Innovative and demand-driven curriculum enables a school or college to
remain relevant and to be one step ahead of its rivals (competitors), set
trends and lead change in order to survive. Curriculum development is a
rational and responsible process. It must be planned carefully and consciously.
12. Factor Effecting Curriculum
Development in Pakistan
Lack of Alignment
Economic Problems
Political Interference
Inadequate Evaluation
Disapproval of society
Curriculum more Urbanized
Lack of In-services Training
Lack of commitment of National Philosophy
13. HEALTH AND FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
(HFLE)
Everyone who works with children and young people would perhaps
unanimously agree that they have a difficult and seemingly an almost
impossible task of getting this sector of our population to "do the right thing".
Parents complain about their children, teachers complain about their students
and both groups tend to agree that the children of today are more difficult to
manage than those of the past.
They need to know what they are up against. We need to prepare our young
people for the future and the survival of our society, since they are the future
and the survival of our society depends on them.
A good part of that preparation is contingent upon the life skills that we give
them and this can be found in Health and Family Life Education (HFLE)
programmes.
14. Family Life Education during Childhood
Basic family life concepts, attitudes, and skills that need to be learned during
childhood include developing a sense of self, learning right from wrong,
learning about family roles and responsibilities, making and keeping friends,
respecting similarities and differences in individuals and families, and
learning to make choices (Bredehoft 1997).
Although these may be learned within the family, they also receive attention
in family life programs because some families may be unable or unwilling to
educate their children about these concepts or their efforts may be
unsuccessful or may not happen at the right time.
15. The Challenges of Teaching HFLE
Sometimes one can believe that what they are doing to help youngsters by
enabling them with life skills such as conflict resolution, problem solving,
decision making etc., seem to be a waste of time because they seem not to
be utilising these skills.
Many people believe that such programmes focus primarily, if not solely on
sex and that as long as sex is a topic being discussed with youngsters, you are
encouraging them in sexual activities. Parents and educators need to
understand that HFLE is more than sex. It is about learning responsibility
generally.
Not enough time is allocated to HFLE. Administrators need to understand the
importance of HFLE and the benefits it has in relation to academic
endeavours.
16. Cont…
HFLE is not only for specialists. If we are to effectively fight the enemy
everyone has to be involved. We cannot afford not to have "all hands on
deck". All adults within the school system need to know about HFLE.
Some HFLE practitioners need to be more in tuned with the youngsters. One
cannot be surprised with what they bring to the sessions. They need to know
young people better and the pressures that they face.
Collaboration is the key. HFLE has to be a collaborative effort. People need to
know what they are up against and the goals and objective need to be clear
17. PRIVATE SCHOOLS
The private education sector in Pakistan—which now accounts for almost 50
percent of enrolment in Punjab alone—has arisen from a complex set of
reasons, and has more ramifications than those captured by research and
policy responses.
The sector needs to be taken more seriously for both the risks it poses and
the opportunities it provides. At present, a parallel amorphous private sector
continues to mushroom without an adequate harness and clarity on its
eventual direction.
The state will have to take charge as laissez faire in education, like any other
fundamental right, cannot exist.
To be successful, it will first have to reform itself, view the private sector as
a medium for education proliferation and comprehend the sector thoroughly,
before applying any policy.
18. Medium of Instruction
Children must initially begin their schooling in their own tongue, with which
they are familiar.
This will help their cognitive development and inculcate critical thinking. It
will also enable them to be articulate participants in the construction of
knowledge in the classroom and discourage the culture of rote learning.
English should be introduced at a later stage and taught as a second language
19. TEACHER TRAINING
i) Pre- service
Teachers for the primary schools after passing Secondary School examination
are provided one year training. PTC and CT training is provided by the
Government Colleges of Elementary Education (GCEE).
Those who possess BA/.Sc degrees are provided one year training called
―Bachelor of Education‖ (B.Ed) at the Government Colleges of Education.
These colleges are at a few selected places in each province of the country.
Those who further want to specialize in the subject of education undergo one
year course called Master in Education (M.Ed).
20. In-service
Programmes of In-Service Teacher Education
Seminar- In a seminar some problems of education are taken up and there
is collective thinking. Discussions are held and conclusions are arrived at
all under the guidance of some experts.
Refresher Courses: - A refresher course means an educational programme
organized for refreshing the knowledge of in-service teacher.
Workshops: - Workshops are organized for giving in-service education to
teachers. They involve more of practical work and less theoretical
discussion.
21. In-service Training Programme
When teachers join teaching profession, they just have a degree of
completion of their pre-service training. They do not know anything about
the actual classrooms.
Sometimes they have no idea about the problems which they are going
to meet in future while teaching the class.
In the training institutions, they just learn the curriculum handed to
them and try their best to rote it and get through the examination.
22. Cont…
In- service training programmes are design to refresh the knowledge of
the teachers. One of the aim is to introduce the teachers with new
trends and techniques in the field of education.
The in-service programmes which are implemented for the
improvement of the quality of education and to enable the teachers with
new techniques, do not produce the desired results. This happens due to
some reasons.
Trainers
The most important reason is the appointment of the trainers. Teachers
who have some approach to the appointing authorities or have links
with the concerned department get themselves appointed as trainer
and even they themselves do not have proper training
23. Cont…
Trainees
When the schedule of the training courses is sent to schools and
heads of the schools, they are asked to send their teachers for
workshop. The heads should send those teachers who have no relation
with the subject for which they are going to take training. Behind this
there are many reasons.
Training methods
In the workshops, arranged for in-service teachers to enhance
their knowledge in their respective subjects, no modern techniques
or material is used. The trainers teach them those articles which
can be found in the books of different classes. No new advance things
are added. Even in science subjects, like mathematics or physics, only
chalk and board are used.
