By M. Jamal Malik

Teachers today are confronted with some of the greatest challenges they have ever had to face. In a world of rapid social and economic change brought about by new information technology and globalization, in a world of wealth for some and excruciating poverty for millions and millions of others, education is our only hope for the future. Teachers provide leadership in education. The role they can play in creating and shaping the future of nations is remarkable.

The lack of discipline that prevails in the schools and the violence associated with young people are to a great extent traceable to the downgrading of the role of teachers in the classroom and in the community. The support the teacher should get from parents and the community in general is often totally lacking.

If a teacher reprimands a child, the parents take umbrage and sometimes even threaten the teacher. The community too does not give its whole-hearted support to assist a school to maintain and sustain a value education. Parents are more concerned with examination results and a teacher's worth is calculated not in terms of the moral and spiritual values he imparts. As such it is no wonder that teachers tend to regard their role not as mentors of their students minds but rather as (usually) ill-paid employees churning out material for success in examinations.

But there is another side to the story. Let us examine what is involved in the process of recruitment of teachers in Pakistan, especially at the government level. The basic procedural steps of the recruitment of educational personnel in Pakistan are: Assessment of the job; attracting applicants; analysis of the application; placement and follow-up.

The selection procedure in case of educational personnel in Pakistan suffers from a number of defects. Sadly enough, teaching is not considered a specialized vocation in our part of the world. One factor for this state of affairs is the rather shabby status our society affords to teachers and another, perhaps more relevant reason, is that we are seldom inspired by the teachers we come across, to aspire to follow in their footsteps. Most of the teachers are teachers not by design but by duress or certain limitations and teaching is often considered only a stepping stone to better opportunities, or a sign that better ones do not exist.

The first screening of potential teachers is at the time of admission to training courses. Their academic achievements in public examinations are usually the criterion before the head of the training institutes. No aptitude or intelligence test is given and the criteria differ from institution to institution.

Educational attainment is the main recruitment yardstick used by administrators. On the whole those who complete the requirements of a professional degree are considered to possess the requisite skills and knowledge to work in an educational system. It must be borne in mind that acquiring a teaching certificate or degree is not a guarantee that the person is either a good teacher or that he or she will succeed as a teacher.

A realistic and well-thought out recruitment and selection policy must be formulated which also takes into account the social and personal merits of an applicant. Teaching is an extremely demanding and challenging profession. For a country like Pakistan, it has far-reaching implications and it is important for teachers, school administrators and above all our policymakers to realize that.

There are a number of problems that a school administrator faces when trying to hire teachers in Pakistan. Most of these problems are concerned with inadequate salaries and unfavourable public image of teachers in Pakistan. Because of these two factors not many suitable people opt to join the teaching profession and so the kind of people who apply for teaching jobs are generally ill-suited for the profession. Besides, the electronic media in particular seldom portrays teachers in a positive light and teachers themselves are often seen cursing and criticizing their profession, thus contributing to their sorry state of affairs.

Recently, one happened to see an advertisement on a local TV channel, which in its bid to entice more young people to eat a particular brand of candy, shows a classroom scene in which a school teacher is portrayed as an idiot and the butt of students' ridicule. It saddens one to see that a teacher's degradation has to be seen in a TV advert as a ploy to get children to buy more candy.

In addition to this, existing teacher's associations have also not done much to create interest in the profession. The lofty ideal that teaching is a mission no longer holds water and many teachers choose to either be quiet or become involved in educational politics. The fault is not that of the teacher only, and many factors contribute to it. His/her economic station in life, a plethora of diversions for the taught and the weakening links between parents and teachers all are to be blamed for the crisis in the teaching profession.

The job of the teacher continues to become more arduous as he/she has to face challenges from within and without to measure up to this apparently esteemed profession.This situation can be improved if the financial problems of teachers are solved by making their salaries and benefits more attractive. This will also help to raise their status in our consumerist/materialist society and so more able and suitable people will be attracted to the profession.

Professional and personal development should be made a priority by the institutions that hire teachers and this should include in-service training as well. The recruitment procedure should also be revised and made more stringent and include personality, aptitude, proficiency and intelligence tests.

Teachers are those people in society whose job it is to channelize the creative energies of young people and to inspire them to want to learn. They are not only professionals, most importantly, they are and should be accepted as important leaders in their respective communities.

Without teachers, education would not be what it is meant to be, because to teach is not simply to tell a child facts and figures. It is to inspire, to involve, to motivate a child, and to unlock his or her potential by offering new perspectives.

There is indeed a dire need to introduce such reforms in the selection, induction, training, compensation and promotion of teachers, that is if we want to see any improvement in the quality of education that is being taught in most schools in this country.