The cause of this investigation was to identify the main reasons which decline the educational standards at secondary level in Karachi, Pakistan. The population of the study was both “government and private” schools students and teachers. The views of male and female students and teachers were sought out. Majority of the respondents had the view that the existing ineffective curriculum and evaluation system are the main reasons of declining educational standards at secondary level in Karachi, Pakistan. Many of the respondents stated that imperfect administration along with bad inspection system became its reasons. Short number of respondent opinioned that improper health facilities, lack of co-curricular activities and outmoded teaching methods caused the sub standard education.
The education is becoming one of the defining enterprises of the 21st century with the emergence of globalization and increasing global competition. Pakistan is determined to respond positively to emerging needs, opportunities and challenges of globalization. Education is being considered a key to change and progress. Progress and prosperity of the country depends on the kind of education that is provided to the people. This study was designed to explain and highlight the standards of education at secondary level in Karachi. Educational standards present criteria by which judgments can be made by state and local school personnel and communities, helping them to decide which curriculum, laws of administration, health program, staff development activity and assessment program is appropriate. Educational standards encourage policies that will bring coordination, consistency, and coherence to the improvement of the process of education. They allow everyone to move in the same direction, with the assurance that the risks they take in the name of improving education will be supported by policies and practices throughout the system. Performance standards describe what level of performance is good enough for students to be described as advanced, proficient, below basic, or by some other performance level.
Usually educational standard stands for quality of education. Quality has been the goal of an eternal quest through the corridors of human history. It has been the divining force of all human endeavors. Educational standards of Pakistan have been a burning issue among the educationalists since independence. Every member of the society has its own views concern the educational standards in Pakistan. Although, every government tried its best to raise the standards of education but their efforts were mainly limited to preparing only educational policies in papers. We could not find practical implementation of their recommendations regarding standards of education in Pakistan. In the more vast sense a standard is any thing used to measure, for example a standard of conduct, a standard of weight or length. Actually a standard is a thing which has been used as a model to which objects or actions may be compared. The standard of education is defined in Encyclopedia of Education (1985) in the following sense:
Why the Karachi Secondary education declined?
What the reasons behind the declining standard of secondary education in Karachi?
What are the solution which can raise the standard of secondary education in Karachi?
(i) To define the actual meaning of educational standards.
(ii) To analyze the views and opinion of students and teachers about-the main reasons of
declining educational standards at secondary level in Karachi.
(iii) To give suggestions and recommendation for improving the educational standards at secondary level.
This study depended on quantitative Secondary research, we analyzing the data which is already available in records. The purpose is to ascertain the overall performance of the government and private secondary schools regarding standard education provided by them.
The collected data was converted into tables. Findings and conclusions were drawn in the light of these tables by the researchers.
Table 1. The ideas and views of government secondary schools male and female students regarding the main reasons of declining educational standards at secondary level in Karachi [2] .
1
Defective administration
70
30
90
10
2
Inflexible curriculum
80
20
80
20
3
Ineffective evaluation system
65
35
60
40
4
Imperfect inspection system
70
30
55
45
5
Improper health facilities
45
55
55
45
6
Lack of co-curricular activities
55
45
45
55
7
Outdated teaching methods
95
05
90
10
8
Unavailability of scholarships
45
55
30
70
Table 2 [3] . Private secondary schools student‟s views about the causes of low standard education at secondary level in Karachi were highlighted.
1
Defective administration
60
40
70
30
2
Inflexible curriculum
65
35
85
15
3
Ineffective evaluation system
75
25
70
30
4
Imperfect inspection system
65
35
90
10
5
Improper health facilities
40
60
50
50
6
Lack of co-curricular activities
30
70
45
55
7
Outdated teaching methods
95
05
95
05
8
Unavailability of scholarships
45
55
35
65
Table 3. [4] The views of teachers belonging to government secondary schools about the main reasons of declining standard of education at secondary level in Karachi are stated.
1
Defective administration
60
40
40
60
2
Inflexible curriculum
80
20
80
20
3
Ineffective evaluation system
60
40
40
60
4
Imperfect inspection system
80
20
60
40
5
Improper health facilities
40
60
60
40
6
Lack of co-curricular activities
40
60
40
60
7
Outdated teaching methods
60
40
60
40
8
Unavailability of scholarships
40
60
20
80
The quality of teachers, which is a key factor in any education system, is poor in Pakistan. The main reason is the low level of educational qualifications required to become a primary school teacher; which includes ten years of schooling and an eleven-month certificate program. It has been established through various studies that pupil achievement is closely related to the number of years of formal schooling of teachers. Thus, students of teachers with 12 years of schooling perform better than students of matriculate (10 years education) teachers, who in turn perform better than students of teachers with only grade eightqualifications. The second factor relates to the quality of teacher certification programs, which suffersfrom the lack of adequately trained master trainers, little emphasis on teaching practice and non-existence of a proper support/monitoring system for teachers. In the absence of any accredited body to certify teachers, the mere acquisition of a certificate/diploma is considered sufficient to apply for a teaching position. In addition, teacher appointment in schools is subject to interference from local interest groups seeking to place teachers of their choice within their constituency. This has opened the system to graft and rent seeking leading to high levels of teacher absenteeism accentuated by the absence of an effective supervision system. The appointment of teachers especially in primary schools is subject to the political influence or paying huge money.
The administration of teacher training in Pakistan is a provincial responsibility. However, the curriculum wing at the federal level is also responsible for teacher education institutions.Government primary school teachers are trained through Government Colleges for Elementary Teachers (GCETs), the distance education program of the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), and teacher training courses run in secondary schools known as Normal Schools or PTC units. Graduates of these institutions are taught a similar curriculum, and receive the Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC) or Certificate in Teaching (CT) at the end of one year. Generally, the number of applicants is far greater than the number of places available. There is also an acute shortage of teacher training facilities, particularly for female teachers in certain regions and especially in the province of Balochistan.
The quality of education imparted by the majority of private schools is questionable owing to an acute dearth of properly trained and qualified teachers, and any kind of support mechanism for these teachers. Except for large school systems like Beaconhouse, City, Lahore Grammar, and others, which constitute a small percentage of the existing private schools the majority of others have appointed teachers who are qualified up to intermediate (12 years of schooling) or BA level (14 years of education), and are paid much lower salaries compared to their counterparts in the government sector in addition to no job security. The large schools and school systems have instituted their own teacher training programs or access specialized private institutions. There is less inclination in these schools to hiring teachers who have previously been trained by government institutions and hold degrees in B. Ed or M. Ed; their preference is for those fluent in English language. Thus,very few teachers hired by the private schools have had any pre-service training. Thereis a felt need to enhance the professional skills of those who are currently working through various inset programs.
Education is a powerful tool and fundamental force in the life of man. Deepak (2006) stated that education plays an instructional role in shaping the destiny of the individual and the future of mankind. SEAMEO-Jasper Research Award (2009) further clears that education provides opportunities to acquire knowledge and competencies to function in a global environment. The goal of building a cohesive, equitable and harmonious community, bound together in solidarity for deeper understanding and cooperation, presents new challenges for scholars and education practitioners in acquiring new concepts and innovative models for effective teaching and learning. The standard of education is direct consequence and outcome of the quality of teachers and teaching methods used by them. Society believes that competent, effective teachers are important keys to a strong system of education. Accordingly, teachers are expected to be proficient in the use of instructional technologies and class room management techniques. They are also expected to have a thorough understanding of the developmental levels of their students and a social group of the content they teach. To maintain and extend this high level of skills, teachers are expected to be informed of exemplary practices and to demonstrate a devise for professional development. Teacher competency and effectiveness includes the responsibility to help all learners succeed. Regarding standards Seth (1970) stated that we have provided more and more money to more and more of that we may be doing poorly. We hope that we could do it better. Educationists of international distinction have suggested that it will be possible only by developing suitable curriculum and applying educational technologies to make the curriculum more effective and the school more efficient. Jalala (2004) said that on the basis of broad objectives, curriculum planning should be done and suitable subject content, behavioral outcomes and other learning experiences be put in for making curriculum comprehensive. It should be based on the findings of curriculum research and be enriched by interdisciplinary collaboration among experts on different subjects. All this would contribute to the design of a total school curriculum that is complementary as well as comprehensive. In Pakistan quality education has marked a clear line of discrimination on financial grounds, and more considerably, it is beyond the reach of many students. Muhammad (2009) declared that the saddening and deteriorating condition of educational system in the country raises many fingers on education department, whose representatives, so confidently, sing songs of success in every of their appearance. There is no accountability of the typical landlord culture, which is going on in majority of the country‟s institutions. If government aims to reach the sky of standard education and to provide it at doorstep of every Pakistani, it should keep its eyes open, as the written records and work in progress in the buildings named schools, are not in any convincing or assimilating position. Especially for the improvement of standard at secondary level education sufficient steps should be taken, because secondary education is connecting link between primary and high education as Srivastara (2005) stated that secondary education is often considered as the most important segment of the individual learning.
According to Water and McFadden (2003) secondary school is a place where much complex interaction takes place that has a significant impact on the identity formation of young people and the consequent success in adult life. Education is the basic right of every individual in the society but unfortunately, educational standards in Pakistan are declining fastly. One of the most important factors in standards of education is good evaluation system. Evaluation plays a great role in the achievements and learning of individual. Especially it can be helpful for teachers to analyze as Lal (2005) stated that evaluation help the teachers to improve his classroom procedures and methods of teaching in the light of feed back. Unfortunately in Pakistan imperfect evaluation system also devalue the standards of education in schools.
(i) The curriculum of secondary level should be improved according to the needs of time and wishes of the society.
(ii) Introduce high quality selection procedure for secondary level teachers and offer the candidates better incentives.
(iii) The administration of school should be effective and efficient. It should keep democratic approach.
(iv) The evaluation system at secondary level should be organized and modern techniques must be used to evaluate the abilities of a child.
(v) There should not be political interference in educational institutions.
(vi) All secondary government and private schools should be allocated with proper health facilities (neat and clean and according to the health principles food and availability of doctor or a nurse in the schools).
(vii) The only trained teachers should be appointed in schools.
(viii) The secondary school teachers should use modern teaching methods according to the age and psychological requirements of students.
(ix) There should be opportunities provided to the students for participating in different co-curricular activities.
(x) The process of inspection should be done in proper and democratic way and the concept of favors should be out of this process.
(xi) The scholarships should be provided to deserving and intelligent students at secondary level in schools.
(xii) Various teams of experts should be involved in performing the above mentioned task of improvement and formation.
After analyzing the results it can be easily concluded that ineffective administration, non flexible curriculum and outdated teaching methods used by teachers are the main reasons of declining educational standards at secondary level. We may say that to some extent the imperfect evaluation system and bad inspection involved in this deterioration. Improper health facilities, political interference, lacking of co-curricular activities, non availability of scholarships are also some of the factors which destroy standards of education at secondary level in Karachi.
Spaulding S (1970). The record is then impressive, UNESCO Department Publications.
Jalala KC (2004). Rao Digmarti, Methods of Teaching Educational Technology, Discovery Publishing House.
Tiwari D (2006). Methods of Teaching Education, Crescent Publishing Corporation. International Encyclopedia of Education, Ref. LB 1569, 1985, 10 Volumes.
SEAMEO-Jasper Research Award (2009). Annual Report.
Theme: “Teachers‟ Professional Development in Southeast Asia”.
Jalalzai MK (2005). The Crisis of Education in Pakistan, State Policies
and Textbooks, Al-Abbas international Publications Lahore.
Mukhopadhyay M (2005). Total Quality Management in Education, Sage-Publications.
JavaScript (story print) (2004). Published on 21st September, Available at www. Edweek. Org/rc/issues/standards. Accessed 05 -08-2009.
Aslam P (2005). Policies and Policy Formation, National Foundation, Lahore.
Srivastara DS (2005) Secondary Education, Mehra Offset Press.
Lal JP (2005) Educational Measurement and Evaluation, Anmol Publications PVT LTD.
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