1. Concept paper prepared for discussion on World Teachers’ Day October 5, 2003 in Kathmandu as well as in
other South Asian Countries by SAARC Teachers’ Federation and its all affiliates.
Education for Quality
QUALITY EFA THROUGH TEACHERS' UNION
KESHAV PRASAD BHATTARAI
Traditionally education was conceived for "social good." Cultural conservation was another aspect of it.
Along with these aspects, education was used as transformative force. The great thinkers from Plato and
Kashyap to Edmund O’ Sullivan and Amartya Sen understood education in any of these forms. It is quite
interesting to note that Plato
(427-347 BC) is still relevant when we conceptualize his educational thoughts into action. In his
understanding education should address both the individual and his/her social life by realization the
justice and discharging functions that the society expects from an individual. Thus Plato has covered the
all the educational issues including the ultimate accountability aspects. He admitted that the state is the
first and foremost educational institution (1) In his view there can’t be a good state without a good
system of education .O Sullivan on the other hand understands education as the transformer of the global
order for the survival of the human being. (2) Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen focuses on the other aspect
of education. In his knowledge education is a force for ensured freedom of a person and determinants of
his/her development.(3) Sen and Dreze view education in playing five distinct roles for individual
freedom. They include (a) intrinsic role (b) instrumental personal role (c) instrumental social role (d)
instrumental process role (e) empowerment role, and (e) distributive role.(4) Undeniably, it is education
that empowers people to the maximum extent, gives voice to the people at bringing freedom, justice and
equality at their disposal, trains people to live a successful life and builds nation and society. Education, at
best has the capability building role at promoting peoples’ participation and accelerating socio-cultural and
economic integration.
The age we live is full of doubts and uncertainties. More complexities have invaded us as a person,
community and nation and as a global citizen. The days to come will bring tremendous problems and
challenges. Only boundless human energy and creativity can give us a safe a passage to a life of dignity
and honor. No one deny that it is education of some level of quality that generates such energy and
germinates such creativity. As Ilya Prigogine observed ‘we cannot predict the future, but we can prepare
for the future’ (5). The best preparation cannot be other than human preparation and again that kind of
preparation can only be ensured through quality education at the massive scale. But education is still a
neglected priority in most developing countries including that of Nepal. A neglected priority cannot
enhance quality in policy making, programming, funding and accountability building. .Well confirmed and
defined quality outputs in education come through quality policies, plans, programs and practices. (6)
At the international level, Nepal along with other developing nations showed its commitment to quality
education in Jomtien, Thailand by acknowledging that “overall the provision of education is seriously
deficient and that it must be made more relevant and qualitatively improved and made universally
available."(7) After a decade of this declaration at Dakar- Senegal, collective international commitment
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2. was reiterated for “improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that
recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all especially in literacy, numeracy and
essential life skill"(8) Following these declarations, each of the participating nations made efforts to
ensure quality education. And yet quality education has been a far cry. It is reverberated throughout the
World with a vague connotation.
Quality education has some basic premises. Before going to the graphic outlines of quality
education I would like to conceptualize some of the basic ideas and issues that are ignored by most of the
policy and decision makers. They include:
• Education is the primary responsibility of any government because it is the most vital element
of social cohesion, national unity and strength. If a government thinks that educating its young
citizen is a burden it loses moral rights to rule the country. Therefore every government has
to make bold initiatives to educate its citizens.
• The focus of education is only the student, student and students. Likewise the first and last
infrastructure of education is the teacher himself/herself. Therefore, the role of the state,
community, local bodies and other sections of society is to facilitate or motivate people for
quality education. They must acknowledge that education is the only process for the
production of human capital which starts with a teacher and ends with students.
• The quality of education depends on the quality and commitment of the teacher and on his/her
relationship with the student and student’s family. Therefore, if quality education for all is to
become a reality, teacher must first of all be given the social status and income that they
deserve. Likely investing in teachers is a prerequisite for any improvement in the educational
process. (9)
• Quality education provided by the smallest number of private schools to a smallest fraction of
students cannot be a quality education per se, because this type of education widens the gap
in society, brings social inequality and tension, mocks justice and robs the vast majority of
students of all the state opportunities available in the country. In other word it is educational
apartheid, because this type of education creates more deprivation and more poverty while
education in fact is a very strong element for fighting deprivation, poverty, injustice and
exclusion. To put it differently, quality is to be inherent in education as a public right. This
inclusive quality education addresses the concerns of low income people, pro-public policy
makers and officials. At the same time, it reduces the widening gap that is being created by
the class education perpetuated by the so called boarding and private schools. The private
schools by and large serve rich and vocal people and the voiceless people are sacrificing their
interest for their vocal counterparts.
5- Quality education defined
Quality education is life long process of empowering individual for qualitative change in
his/her life through acquired energy and creativity to build profound cumulative impact on social
dynamism, which, with determinate positivism, prepares the individual and the community, meet each and
every need of their life and time.
Aspects of quality education for EFA
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3. Quality education covers a wide spectrum. It embraces different aspects of human and social
life. They include:
1. Utility aspect by (a) defining, serving and attaining individual and social interests, values and
achievement (b) bringing and promoting quality behaviors in achieving personal happiness,
social peace .progress and co-operation, and (c) .ensuring socio- economic and cultural
development of both the individual and the society.
2. Capability aspects by (a) playing effective personal roles (b) promoting and protecting personal
and social well being.(c) realizing personal importance (d) Enlarging personal choices, and (e)
inculcating risk and adversity management skills.
3. Relevancy aspects by (a) mobilizing available resources (b) realizing personal incompetence (c)
ensuring standard living, and (d) enabling individual as well as society for wise utilization of
available opportunities
4. Emotional aspects by (a) providing quality relationship with family and community in daily life,
and (b) sharing sense of happiness, pain, suffering, feeling of individuals owing, alienation and
allegiance in personalizing social interest and socializing personal interest.
5. Communicative aspects by (a) simulating individuals to perform social role (b) schooling people
with transformative curriculum, and (c) updating as well as satisfying curricular needs of the
community
6. Support aspects by (c) creating enabling environment for students from family, teachers and
friends (b) ensuring level and kinds of supports that students want to receive (c) knowing how
the students receive and utilize support for their expanded abilities (d) making support enrich
student’s personal life (e)and building ability in creating support and contributing support
7. Impact zone of Quality Education
Quality education has its zone. Its zone can be identified in the following table:
Table 1
Zone of quality education
• Individual and social empowerment • Individual betterment
through freedom, justice, equality through quality desire,
situation enlarged by education. values, and success
• Level of social integration and socio- aspirations.
cultural, economic and political • Quality role play and
development through-democratic quality of personal choice
commitment of the educated and importance
citizens. • Quality in managing risks
and adversities.
• Social transformation through the • Quality of personal living
best use of available human natural, and sense of well being.
social and economic assets. • Quality of personal
capacity.
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4. • uality of available
opportunity.
• Quality of human and
social security system.
The above zones of quality education help understand that there are multiple areas where the system has
to focus. At the same time there are many areas that a teacher has to know to ensure quality education.
Below is the list of the desirable interventions for quality education which concentrates more teacher as
a unit.
Desirable interventions for quality education
"One fits all" approach may not work to ensure quality education. In other words, quality education can be
attained through direct and indirect interventions. These interventions are chronologically mentioned
below.
Table 2
Interventions for quality education
Direct interventions Indirect Interventions
• Preparation of teachers • Policies, plans and program
• Adequate educational adjustment in building
infrastructures. system efficiency and
• Securing greater effective maintenance.
accountability. • Proper combination between
• Bringing educational state commitment and
institutions within community involvement in
community ownership. education.
• High level political will and
• Availability of better integrity.
working conditions and • Broad based national
service packages for consensus and social
teachers. • alliances in educational
betterment program.
The table above explicitly shows that quality education demands both the direct and indirect
interventions with its primary as well as secondary stakeholders of education. These interventions vary
from policy to implementation levels. Again the focus of the interventions should be the teacher because
s/he is the one who translates the notion of quality education in daily chores.
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5. 9- Pre- requisite of Quality Education
Quality education demands some pre-requisites. These pre-requisites are always contextual
in a sense that they differ from teacher to teacher and context to context. Following is the exhaustive
list of pre-requisites that are essential for quality education. They are:
• Quality in Education depends upon the total national quality of socio-cultural, economic and
political system.
• Quality education has a bottom – up (from school to highest policy level) and vice versa nature.
(For example quality schooling demands quality policy, planning, programming and
implementation and this accelerates better schooling conditions)
• Quality in education is neither cheap nor free of cost. It is best human acquisition re-
enforced by excellent schooling provisions. Therefore quality investment in all relevant sector
strongly effects the level and type of quality education,.
• Quality promoted by high level efficiency and integrity at all levels imposes self discipline and
motivation.
• Kind and level of quality has a future link although it can be realized at present.
• Quality education has local to global implications, so it can be achieved from local to global
level efforts and commitment, followed by integrated national efforts and strong political will
and integrity: a real catalyst in quality education.
• Quality in education is well measured not by sample survey in one or two aspect of education
but by depth survey and research at all levels and aspects.
• Quality has accountability effect which can be built through broad participation, sense of
ownership and unity of action, purpose and shared benefits, better incentives for personal
growth, and effective protective shield against adverse effects.
10. Strategies for improving quality in education.
Quality education requires multiple strategies at different levels. At the grassroots level, these
strategies prepare favorable environment. At the program level, they provide succinct mechanism to
streamline the ongoing activities, and at the policy level, they need flexible policy options. Following is
proposed strategies for improving quality education.
• Ensure defined accountability at the level of parents, local community, school management,
teachers and their unions, local bodies and local administration, and legal bodies at the national
levels and the state at large.
• Community actions and involvement to enlarge better educational opportunities for all. Build
universal accessibility and affordability of education to the whole sections of society with
gender and deprived community related focus.(10)
• provide incentives for local bodies as additional central grants, special developmental
programs and legal authority to levy local tax if all children within the particular area are
enrolled and a given percentage of them complete primary level education.
Similarly, peoples of low income groups and deprived communities and parents of girls are to be
encouraged to enroll their children into school and complete the schooling. They can be facilitated with
bank loan (11) support for their family occupation etc. additional central and local grants for building and
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6. improving public facilities and promotion of income generating program. These can be launched in villages
where a village community has made good progress and willing to give collective commitment or use
influences to achieve EFA goals by a given time frame (12)
A study done by Asian Development Bank with the aims of providing the backdrop to ADB’s education
sector policy paper articulating the policies, priority and strategies that it intends to emphasize on
strengthening infrastructure in the center. In this regards ADB suggests (a) capacity building processes
extend from the policy environment at the central level to school level management and (b) improvement in
education planning and policy capabilities of provincial and district institutions and restructuring school
level management with strategies to back up these policies.(13)
In short some policies and strategies to improve quality in education can be suggested as:
• Secure accessibility, affordability and quality in education.
• Build accountability through partnership and ownership in education.
• Streamline community actions and involvement.
• Focus on integrated national development approach as an umbrella system of educational sub
system
• Reform educational administration and school management.
• Democratization in education through decentralization.
• Build effective supervisory and facilitating mechanism to regulate coordinate and motivate
quality excellence in identifying the needs of the school
• Allocate and mobilize adequate resources to bring quality educational output and build proper
transparency in its transaction
• Build professionalism in education and enhance professional competency in teachers through
highly effective rewards and punishment instruments.
• Confirm strong political will and state commitment to improve education and give it proper
dynamism and direction.
Indicators of Quality education
Achievements can be assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively. In both the cases, some of the
objective as well as subjective parameters are needed as indicators of quality education. The following
list provides the list of quality indicators:
Table 3
Quality indicators for education
Objective indicators of quality education Subjective indicators of quality
education
• Enrollment (male, female, effective economic and social
and gross enrollment) empowerment through
• Retention and completion
level (male- female and • Poverty reduction
gross enrolment) • Social transformation
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7. • Adult literacy rate (male- • Availability of freedom
female) situation
• acquiring basic life skill and • Lowest level of human
standard of quality life. deprivation.
• Level of academic freedom • Sustainability of socio
• acquired communicative skill economic development
of the learner plans, policies and
• Teachers preparation, programs
motivation and compensation • Social cohesion, unity
packages and peace
• Physical facilities available • Social equality
and availability of advanced and justice
teaching and learning aids • Best use of social and
forteachers and students natural resources
• Percentage of public
allocation and parental • Democratization of social
contribution living and national polity.
• Use of modern technology in
education
• parental and community
participation in school
• management
• Teachers mobilization and
accountability building
mechanism
The objective indicators are scientific and subjective indicators deal with human satisfaction. But the
remarkable thing is that both the indicators are equally important for
the ensured quality education. Herein below is the list of tools that help promote quality education.
Table 4
Tools for measuring quality in education
Regular scoring tools Additional tools or techniques
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8. • Curricular achievement level (a) At the personal
• Activities as demanded by
curriculum • Self reliant and
• Other social activities confident.
• Style and standard of daily • Has fixed life goals and
living wants to live a purposeful
• Kind and quality of support life.
student provides and • Has learnt what s/he
receives is expected to learn.
• General outlook towards life • Has his/her education applied
and other relevant situations in his daily life?
• Sense of responsibility and • Has some personal
accountability at different limitations.
levels
• Personal life and character (b) at the social level
• Norms, values and • Has built friendship circle
belief system for personal • Has maintained family
and social living. responsibility.
• Has participated in school
and social activities.
• Has troubled relation with
any family or community
member or friendship circle.
• Has enthusiasm for social
interactions
The above tools and techniques contribute in two ways for quality education. At one level, it provides a
general frame. And at the individual level, it highlights both the social as well as personal skills for quality
education. As a quality promoter a teacher is supposed to deal with both these frames through curricular
as well as extra-curricular activities.
Teacher unions for quality education for all
Quality, Equality, Sustainable Development and Proper use of Human Social and Natural
resources are the buzz words that are related to quality education. In order to translate these words
into action teachers' union must show their organizational commitment keeping the view that (a) quality of
education determines the quality of nations and society (b) quality of teachers ascertains the quality of
education. Therefore the quality of education is the outcome of total national commitments made and
practiced on the part of education. No individual and any single group of people or agencies can do this
job. But the basics of quality starts from teachers – the education and training of teachers, the process
of their recruitment, deployment, proper remuneration, instructional support and working conditions.
Moreover, the level of competency and sense of accountability that a teacher endows give him/her dignity
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9. and honor that s/he deserves to improve quality. But without upgrading their status and morale such
competency and accountability is not quite possible
Teaching is a never ending job, not confined within a given time and space. Inside the four walls of a
classroom the past comes to prepare the future through present and meets the whole human race through
their cultural and national linkages. It is where teachers' union can be instrumental. Similarly students are
the part of teachers. When students excel or fail the real winner or loser is the teacher himself/herself,
because it is teacher who looks through the eyes of students, thinks and senses from students mind, works
with their hands and walks with their legs. Likewise the students peeps the world through the eyes of a
teachers. So the quality of education has to cement the bond of relationship between students and
teachers. Class-room with goal oriented teachers and student reserve energy at bringing peace,
development and amity among people, fighting injustices and un-freedom and breaking poverty cycle of
societies. But the classrooms are also to be energized to reserve and tap this (energy) and bring change in
the mindset of people and their work through number one national priority to improve the teaching and
learning conditions.
Reflecting upon the above contexts the following action programs have been identified for teachers
unions:
1. Capacity building of the teachers' union by (a) mobilizing and re-orienting teachers and their
unions to achieve EFA goals (b) building competent networks to meet the professional
challenges and broaden new opportunities.(c) promoting maximum participation and ownership
in union decisions to enhance transparency and accountability (d) collecting and mobilizing
resources, and (e) building union's capability to address the need of teachers while being
democratic, representative, non discriminatory, active in promoting quality education,
concerned and involved with community stakes and relevant to the modern school needs(16)
2. Education and training program for the teachers and union leaders with the ultimate goal of
promoting quality in education by (a) conducting mini pedagogical researches (b) enhancing
capacity and willingness of teachers to implement quality teaching techniques (c) deriving
strategic visions (d) motivating teachers to apply quality indicators and quality scoring
instrument in the assessment of student’s achievement level, and (e) orienting teachers with
EFA goals and mobilizing them to achieve it.
Teachers' union and their general members are to be made aware of the government's negligence
in education.(15)
3. Advocacy and campaigning to adopt and implement follow up activities by (a) promoting
modernization and higher standards in the recruitment, training, deployment and ensuring
appropriate incentives for teachers (b) applying ILO/ UNESCO recommendation concerning
the Status of Teachers’ 1996and EI resolution 1995/ 1998, Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and other related international Conventions, World Declaration on Education for All
1990 and Dakar Framework for Action 2000, UN World Summit Declaration for Social
Development 1995 ( 10 commandments for Social Development ), Decisions of the tripartite
meeting of ILO/ GMEP (1996) on the desired content and processes of teachers’ preparation
and professional development, and UN Declaration on Millennium Development Goals 2000.
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10. 4. Social mobilization (social partnership through Alliance and ownership) of the teachers for (a)
expanded accessibility, affordability, and quality of education (b) restored school
accountability towards parents and parental accountability towards schools (c) secured state
commitment and community actions to expand educational opportunities for all (d) streamlined
educational issues to be addressed through integrated socio economic process of development
(e) created regular social dialogue to improve education (f) developed and implemented
collaborative strategic planning to build massive educational efforts and adequate budgetary
allocation for quality education, and (g) empowered stakeholders of education.
In a nutshell the instrumental force that ensures quality education is teacher. The teacher
thus requires dialogical environment, professional updating, career path, parental cooperation,
cultural support, and process oriented mentality of the students. In all these themes,
teachers' union should be mobilized to promote quality EFA.
(1) G.H.Sabine: A History of Political Thought, P 59.
(2) Edmund O’ Sullivan; Trans formative Learning: Educational Vision for the 21st Century,
Zed Books,1999.
(3) Amartya Sen; Development As Freedom, Oxford 1999, and with Jean Dreze India-Development And
Participation, Oxford,2002
(4) Dreze and Sen. op.cit.p.39.(5) quoted in Federico Mayor and Jerome Binde; The World
Ahead; Our Future in the Making UNESCO, Zed books, 2001, p.1.
(6) adapted from the resolutions of 5th.Council Meeting of STF (April18-20, 2002) Katmandu.
(7) (World Declaration on Education for All- Meeting Basic LearningNeeds-5-9 March 1990).
8). The Dakar Framework for Action, UNESCO, 2000.
(9) Mayor, op.cit. p. 360,362.
10) Some examples of similar experiences can be borrowed from Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Himanchal Pradesh in India see N. ChandrababuNaidu, Plain Speaking Viking, 2000 p 163-173. Dreze and
Sen in India-Development and Participation 143-188 have given their compelling remarks as well as
conclusions of various well researched studies made in India on various well researched studies made
in India on universal primary education.
(11)The approach of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has set an excellent example in this regards, see, Life
Long Learning in the 21st Century, ILO, 2000, p.20. The mentioned work has numbers of practices applied
around the World
(12). For Kenyan example see World Development Report World Bank 2002, p.178.
How financial constraints blocks educational opportunity of children’s
illustrated in World Bank Report 2000/2001 with illustrious example p-83
(13) Education and National Development in Asia – Trends, Issues, Policies and
Strategies, ADB 2001, Executive Summary.
(14)For correlation of social capital with indicators of school quality sees Narayan and Pritchette- Social
Capital – evidence and implication in Das Gupta and Seragaldin edited Social Capital – a Multi faceted
Perspectives, World Bank, 1999
(15) The observation made by a noted Human Development Expert Dr. Mahbub -Ul –Haq shows the picture
of educational negligence in the developing nations. According to his observation, – South Asia takes
pride in allocating 6th times more money in arms purchase than in Education (See Reflections on
Human Development, Oxford)-2000, P.220. Dr. Haq’s hard exposure and brilliant conclusion and policy
solutions seems best alternatives to change the disappointing state of living in South Asia (See also figure
attached with this paper)
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11. (16) Adapted from the Resolutions on Building Trade Unions into the 21st Centaury, ICFTU-APRO,
December 1996.
The author is former President of Nepal’s Teachers’ Association, Teachers’ Union of Nepal and former
General Secretary of SAARC Teachers’ Federation
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