Teacher Education in Pakistan: Issues and Problems

Overview & Synopsis

Teacher education is an essential and critical part of every educational system and therefore plays a key and fundamental role in improving quality and enhancing the educational system. The goal of the study was to present an overall picture of teacher education in Pakistan in the context of education policies, quantitative expansion, provision of education for pre- and in-service teachers, particularly by the public sector, initiatives undertaken by the public sector to improve the quality of teacher education and to highlight the issues and problems of teacher training. Since, 1947 Pakistan has grown tremendously in the number of teacher training institutions. Teacher education is an important area of concern in the education system in Pakistan, so every educational policy paper has discussed teacher education and suggested various measures to improve teacher education. These measures, however, were implemented in parts and pieces, hence, could not bring the desired results. The quality of public-sector education declined over the period of time thus provided the space for private sector which emerged as a strong competitor in the education sector by enrolling one-third of students at all educational levels.