ACCREDITATION OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN
National Problems

Quality teachers are the only solution to all the national problems. The concerned must take serious note of the situation to ensure the quality of teachers to resolve all the existing problems and issues faced by the nation. The participants of the NACTE National Conference 2015 had a total consensus. The Conference stressed upon improving quality of teacher education in Pakistan.

Educationists, Teacher Educators and Researchers at a two day National Conference on Accreditation of Teacher Education in Pakistan: Prospectus and Challenges, organized by National Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, (NACTE) Pakistan in collaboration with IER, Punjab University on October 27-28, 2015 expressed their concerned upon the deteriorating status of the quality of teacher education offered by the public and private sector universities & institutions and stressed upon its improvement.

Dr. Riaz ul Haq Tariq Chairperson NACTE welcomed the guest and participants for attending the conference. Vice Chancellor, University of the Punjab, Prof. Dr. Mujhid Kamran in his presidential address, mentioned about the diminishing commitment and passion of the teachers towards the profession. He emphasized to revive the same spirit of good old days.

Prof. Dr. Naveed A Malik, Rector Virtual University in his keynote address talked about the significance of accreditation process to ensure and enhance the quality of education. He mentioned that accreditation is a world vide accepted practice to address the quality issues.

Dr Irshad Ahmad Farrukh the founder secretary presented an overview of NACTEs journey since 2008. The journey which was initiated by two persons, Dr Irshad the Secretory and Dr Munawar S Mirza VC University of Education, the first Chairperson of the Council with no office and chair to sit and pen and paper to write. He thanked the UNESCO Pakistan and USAID for their technical and financial support they provided through STEP & PRESTEP Projects in the development of National Standards for Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs. Accreditation process, procedures, and tools including piloting, benchmarking and establishing a well-equipped office in Islamabad.

The conference was attended by student, teacher scholars, educators, educationists, academic evaluators’ stakeholders and media people from all over the country. On the first day of the Conference twelve papers were presented on multiple dimensions of teacher education and program accreditation. Great interest and enthusiasm was witnessed among the presenters and participants of the Conference. Quality, quality assurance and quality enhancement of teacher education remained the major focus of discussion. The debates remained very interactive and impressive. Question answer sessions were particularly thought provoking and much informative for the participating stakeholders, academic evaluators and teacher educators.

The second day was reserved for sharing the accreditation experiences of stakeholders and academic evaluators and clarification of misconceptions regarding Councils scope, functions and particularly the accreditation procedures. The issues of documentation, self-evaluation and preparation for accreditation visits faced by teacher education institutions also raised and answered by NACTE staff. The stakeholders from private and public sector universities and colleges from all provinces and areas presented their views raised questions and provided feedback with specific recommendations and suggestions for improvement and smoothening the accreditation process and procedures. The recommendations and suggestions were noted for review and approval of the Council.

The External Academic evaluators of NACTE in the second session of the day shred their views on accreditation process particularly the accreditation visits and termed it a great learning experience they ever had in their career. The experience, which gave them and the teacher education institutions, an identity, importance and status at national level. They applauded the efforts of NACTE and termed the accreditation process a great contribution toward ensuring and enhancing the quality of teacher education.

Dr Munawar Sultana MIrza, the founder chairperson was the chief guest of the closing ceremony of the conference. She commended the efforts of NACTE Secretariat for the conference initiative and its success. Later on she awarded shields and certificates to the participants. Dr. Irshad A Farrukh thanked all the participants and presenters at the end, for their contributions, to close the conference proceedings.