Teacher Education in Punjab (Pakistan)and Future Demands for Globalization of Education, Adaptation or Immitation?

SYEDA SAIRA HAMID (PhD SCHOLAR) NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES ISLAMABAD PAKISTAN [e-mail] ABSTRACT
It is universally recognized that education is the basic human right and teacher education is heart and life blood of educational system, which play pivotal role for the progress of any country. Pakistan has 90 colleges of elementary education, which offer teacher training programmes for PTC, CT, certificates B.Ed and M.Ed degrees. For secondary schools teachers there are 16 colleges of education and there are 9 departments of education in various universities which train teachers at master level. There are only 4 institutions offering in-service teacher education.
In Punjab there are 36 elementary colleges in almost each district of Punjab, University of education Lahore with various sub campuses along DSD and PITE working in collaboration with the university. Institute for Educational Research
(IER) is also working in Punjab University Lahore for pre-services teachers. There are so many private institutes for teachers’ trainings.

Questionnaires on five/ three point’s scales were distributed. The data was collected through 306 questionnaires and analyzed with the help of Chi-Square.
The findings showed the increase in quantity not the quality, i.e. increase in literacy rate but the quality of education is still too far. The government schools are not accepting the students from NGO/NFBE schools due to poor quality of education. NGOs can not be a substitute for the government. There should be strict checks and no compromises on quality of education which is the key to the success.
Key Words: Teacher education, Globalization, Pre service, Future demands, Punjab

INTRODUCTION
It is universally recognized that education is the basic human right and teacher education is heart and life blood of educational system, which play pivotal role for the progress of any country. Pakistan has 90 colleges of elementary education, which offer teacher training programmes for PTC, CT, certificates B.Ed and M.Ed degrees. For secondary schools teachers there are 16 colleges of education and there are 9 departments of education in various universities which train teachers at master level. There are only 4 institutions offering in-service teacher education.
In Punjab there are 36 elementary colleges in almost each district of Punjab, University of education Lahore with various sub campuses along DSD and PITE working in collaboration with the university. Institute for Educational Research
(IER) is also working in Punjab University Lahore for pre-services teachers. There are so many private institutes for teachers’ trainings.

In the study different research questions were addressed like, what role was played by the Government in teacher education for quality education? How were the programmes for teacher education? How much effective was the training

LITERATURE REVIEW

Education is one of the most important tools at our disposal to promote a sustainable society. The Education stream focuses on improving educational programs, materials and strategies to drive ecological justice and social change. Train people to become agents of change within their organizations, communities and institutions and create multidisciplinary learning environments and motivate change should be at top priority in teacher education.
Our leader Quaid-E-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah announced in September 26, 1947, Karachi, as “Education is the matter of life and death for Pakistan. The world is progressing so rapidly that without requisite advance in education, not only shall we be left behinds others but may be wiped out altogether.”

For the past few years, we have observed a high stepping up in this trend due to a political and ideological environment extremely favour able to its development and rapid advances in technological innovation, especially in the area of telecommunications. Educational planners – wherever they come from –must think seriously about the consequences of such a phenomenon, particularly in terms of shifts in the job market, in order to better adapt their country’s training system.
Globalization is often synonymous with internationalization, referring to the growing interconnectedness and interdependence of people and institutions throughout the world. Although these terms have elements in common, they have taken on technical meanings that distinguish them from each other and from common usage. Internationalization is the less theorized term. Globalization, by contrast, has come to denote the complexities of interconnectedness, and scholars have produced a large body of literature to explain what appear to be ineluctable worldwide influences on local settings and responses to those influences.
Globalization is a complex phenomenon that has had far-reaching effects. Not surprisingly, therefore, the term “globalization” has acquired many emotive connotations and become a hotly contested issue in current political discourse. At one extreme, globalization is seen as an irresistible and benign force for delivering economic prosperity to people throughout the world. At the other, it is blamed as a source of all contemporary ills.
A massive spread of education and of Western oriented norms of learning at all levels in the twentieth century and the consequences of widely available schooling are a large part of the globalization process. With regard to the role of schools, globalization has become a major topic of study, especially in the field of comparative education, which applies historiography and social scientific theories and methods to international issues of education.
Education plays a leading role in human development and civilization of the world. It creates opportunities for the economically and socially deprived countries of the world. As globalization has made economic life more competitive and demanding, so modern skills are urgent need and basic requirements to compete and benefit from the opportunities twisted by globalization. The role of teacher is also changed with the advancement of global world. Teacher is considered the only agent for transferring new changes in the coming generations. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ' -Henry Brooks Adams
As the major formal agency for conveying knowledge, the school features prominently in the process and theory of globalization. Early examples of educational globalization include the spread of global religions, especially Islam and Christianity, and colonialism, which often disrupted and displaced indigenous forms of schooling throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth century’s. Postcolonial globalizing influences of education have taken on more subtle shapes.
In globalization, it is not simply the ties of economic exchange and political agreement that bind nations and societies, but also the shared consciousness of being part of a global system. That consciousness is conveyed through ever larger transnational movements of people and an array of different media, but most systematically through formal education. The inexorable transformation of consciousness brought on by globalization alters the content and contours of education, as schools take on an increasingly important role in the process.
Democratization: As part of the globalization process, the spread of education is widely viewed as contributing to democratization throughout the world. Schools prepare people for participation in the economy and polity, giving them the knowledge to make responsible judgments, the motivation to make appropriate contributions to the well being of society, and a consciousness about the consequences of their behavior. National and international assistance organizations, such as the U. S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), embrace these objectives. Along with mass provision of schools, technological advances have permitted distance education to convey Western concepts to the extreme margins of society, exposing new regions and populations to knowledge generated by culturally dominant groups and helping to absorb them into the consumer society.
A policy of using schools as part of the democratization process often accompanies structural adjustment measures. However, encouraging user fees to help finance schooling has meant a reduced ability of people in some impoverished areas of the world to buy books and school materials and even attend school, thus enlarging the gap between rich and poor and impeding democracy. Even in areas displaying a rise in educational participation, observers have reported a reduction in civic participation. Increased emphasis on formalism in schooling could plausibly contribute to this result. An expansion of school civics programs could, for example, draw energy and resources away from active engagement in political affairs by youths, whether within or outside of schools. Increased privatization of education in the name of capitalist democratization could invite greater participation of corporate entities, with the prospect of commercializing schools and reducing their service in behalf of the public interest.
Globalization and the governance of education
Globalization has impacted upon the nature of the agencies those ‘school’ children, young people and adults. The question we are facing now is, To what extent is the educational attempt affected by processes of globalization that are threatening the autonomy of national educational systems and the independence of the nation-state as the ultimate ruler in democratic societies? At the same time, how is globalization changing the fundamental conditions of an educational system premised on fitting into a community, a community characterized by proximity and familiarity? (Burbules and Torres 2000)
At first glance it would seem that national governments still have considerable freedom to intervene in education systems. UK government (in its various forms), for example, has significantly increased the scale of central direction and intervention through the use of national curriculum requirements, special initiatives (involving direct funding) and other, institutional means. However, as soon as we examine the nature of this expansion of intervention we can see that the overriding concern is with economic growth and international competitiveness - and that the efforts of politicians have been deeply flawed and their record dismal.
The more overtly and the more directly politicians attempt to organize education for economic ends, the higher the likelihood of waste and disappointment... What marks (British politicians) from their international counterparts is simply the speed with which, in our hugely centralized system, they launch one educational broadside after another. In the process we have almost forgotten that education ever had any purpose other than to promote growth. (Wolf 2002)
De-localization and changing technologies and orientations in education:
As well as conditioning the political context, globalization has found expression in some very direct ways - for example, the de-localization of schooling. Since the 1980s, there has been a degree of 'parental choice; within state schooling. It has been possible to choose which schools to apply to at both primary and secondary levels. While much primary school application is local, a significant proportion of secondary school application is not. This has both severed the link between locality and schooling and undermined the idea of community schooling. A further degree of delocalization has occurred as a result of scares around child protection and truancy. While schools might be local, access to the neighbourhood and of neighbours to the school has been restricted. The most visible signs are the security gates and fences that are part of the perimeter of schooling. Such measures inevitably strengthen the idea that the school is somehow separate from the community where it is located - and this is further intensified by the regime of testing and centralized curriculum construction that has been the hallmark of the UK education system since the early 1980s. There has been significantly less room for more local community-oriented explorations and student projects. As we have seen, the main forces framing the centralized curriculum are economic and directly linked to globalization.
To these developments must be added changes in educational technology - especially the use of the internet and other computer forms, and the growth of distance learning. At one level these can be seen as an instrument of localization. They allow people to study at home or at work. However, they usually involve highly individualized forms of learning and may not lead to any additional interaction with neighbours or with local shops, agencies and groups. They also allow people from very different parts of the world to engage in the same programme - and student contact can be across great physical distance.
Conclusion
The perversion of education and the exploitation of learners that we have catalogued here is a matter of profound concern. We have witnessed a fundamental attack on the notion of public goods, and upon more liberal ideas of education. Learning has increasingly been seen as a commodity or as an investment rather than as a way of exploring what might make for the good life or human flourishing. Teachers ' and educators ' ability to ask critical questions about the world in which live has been deeply compromised. The market ideologies they have assimilated, the direction of the curricula they are required to 'deliver ', and the readiness of the colleges, schools and agencies in which they operate to embrace corporate sponsorship and intervention have combined to degrade their work to such an extent as to question whether what they are engaged in can be rightfully be called education. In a very real sense they are engaged in furthering what Erich Fromm described as alienation: Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life forces as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions. (Fromm 1957: 67)
It is a form of education that looks to 'having ' rather than 'being ' (Fromm 1976). Just what is needed to push back and undermine this pernicious process is fairly clear. We need, for example, to adopt ways of thinking about, and acting in, the world that have at their core an informed commitment to human flourishing in its fullest sense. It is necessary to reassert the public domain and to police the boundaries between it and the market sector with some vigilance (Leys 2001: 222). Furthermore, we need, as educators, to be able to do what is right rather than what is 'correct '. But how is all this to be achieved within societies and systems conditioned by globalization and neo-liberalism and in which there are asymmetrical relations of power? The answer, of course, is that cannot. But we can, at least, seek to undermine the narrowing and demeaning processes that pass under the name of education in many systems. Alternative ways of educating that look to well-being and participation in the common life have been well articulated. Whether they can be realized is is down in significant part to our courage as educators, and our ability to work with others with a similar vision.
Mark K. Smith 2002 Globalization involves the diffusion of ideas, practices and technologies. It is something more than internationalization and universalization. It isn 't simply modernization or westernization. It is certainly isn 't just the liberalization of markets. Anthony Giddens (1990: 64) has described globalization as 'the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa '. This involves a change in the way we understand a language and experience localness. As well as offering opportunity it brings with considerable risks linked, for example, to technological change. .
The Education Systems Must Be Changed to Deliver New Skills
Today 's world of intense global competition and rapid technological change demands problem-solving, communication and language skills not being emphasized in most schools of the region, argues the report.
“Since education is the main source of knowledge creation, the task is clear,” it says Rutkowski. “The education systems must be changed to deliver new skills and expertise necessary to excel in a more competitive environment.”
METHODOLOGY
The nature of the study was descriptive and survey type. Various methods and procedures were adopted for the collection and interpretation of data. The populations in this study were the students of ten plus years (10+years) along with teachers, administrators, executive districts officers (E.D.Os) and field officers in literacy/ NGOs and non formal basic education department from thirty-five districts of Punjab. The overall estimated populations’ size was 256000. (Information collected from Literacy and NFBE Lahore)
Out of thirty five in Punjab twelve districts were selected from upper, central and southern Punjab for sample. These districts were Bahawalpur, D.G khan, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan from southern Punjab, Lahore, Sialkot, Sargodha and Mianwali from central and Gujranwala, Gujarat, Jehlum and Rawalpindi from upper Punjab. Twenty students, two teachers, two field officers and One E.D.O literacy, were taken from each district for sample. Six administrators were also included in the sample from literacy and non educational department. The teachers and students (10+years) of non-formal education and NGOs schools in the sampled districts filled the questionnaires with various numbers as described in the sample table. Study was delimited to twelve districts only.
Instruments of the study were questionnaires, on three points scales given to the field officers and teachers, and with yes and no options, to the students. Questionnaires on five points scale were distributed to experts, administrators and to the heads in literacy centers. The validity and reliability of the questionnaires was tested and checked with the help of experts. Three hundred and six (306) questionnaires were distributed.
Questionnaires in district Bahawalpur, R.Y Khan, Jehlum,Gugranwala, Bahawalnagar, Literacy secretariat and Directorate of N.F.B.E (Government .of Punjab)Lahore and Rawalpindi were distributed by- hand.

DATA ANALYSIS
Data was collected through 306 questionnaires from 12 districts. Then it was incorporated and analyzed with the help of Chi-Square statistical tool. Some questions in student’s questionnaire were analyzed through percentages (%) Finally it was interpreted in the light of objectives of the study. Problems and weaknesses about literacy programmes and quality education were collected from the sampled population. The most common statements were described in interpretation of data. (Annexure)
Same way the views and opinions about different literacy programmes and projects were also collected from the questionnaires and interpreted in the finding and conclusions. Recommendations were also got in various responses and interviews and researcher’s own recommendations also added.
Some interviews for the sake of detailed views and opinions about literacy were also conducted from ex- education minister of Punjab Miss Shaheen Attiq-ur-Rehman, Deputy-secretary (Lit), additional secretary (Lit), E`.D.O (Lit) and Field officers in mentioned districts in Literacy, Non Formal Basic Education Department and NGOs in private sector. The views were incorporated in findings and recommendations.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the data analysis and survey several points were summarized under each theme:

Theme 1: Challenges to teacher education:
The challenges are low attendance and non accessibility of poor to basic education at primary level that creating an uncontrollable flood for literacy quality education. Moreover, the government schools do not give admission to the students of NGO schools and non-formal basic education. It is because of poor quality of educations and low grads of students. There should be some legislation and standers followed NGOs and non formal basic education centers to compete the outer world.

Theme 2: Quality indicators:
Various quality indicators like basic and professional qualification of teacher, teacher salary, and teacher- student ratio in class, student assessment and success stories after course completion were used. It was surprised that 95% teachers were just matriculate and without professional qualification that was main cause of poor quality of education.
Teachers without professional qualification should not be allowed at all to teach in NGOs schools and NFBE centers. Theme 3: The role the Punjab government:
NGOs role was appreciated to increase enrolment rate in schools. But not deliberately the quality education is demystifying by NGOs, after all they are profit making.
Some terms and conditions should be decided by the Government in public private partnership of education and for NGOs.
Theme: 4 Lessons learnt: The quality of education is the key to the success of a programme which is not being focused at present; the stress is on quantity not on quality at present. Quality of education should be focused. REFERENCES
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