The IMPACT OF ACCREDITATION ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS/INSTITUTIONS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

The role of the education in the development of any country is very well accepted .In fact it is the only solution to socioeconomic, regional/geographical issues of any nation. Education and its quality are directly related to the quality of instruction by teacher in classroom. In-fact no system of education is better than its teacher. In Pakistan’s case serious and consistent efforts are needed to improve the quality of teachers on the priority bases. Because the qualitative dimension of teacher education programs have resulted in mass production of teachers with shallow understanding of content and methodology. In Pakistan accreditation system has been introduced to accredit teacher education programs and initiatives are been taking to initiate registration, licensing and certification process of teachers. The accreditation of teacher education programs has been declared mandatory by HEC. All the institutions offering any graduate level teacher education programs are required to get the accreditation of their programs.   The purpose of initiating the accreditation process for Teacher Education was to ensure and improve the quality of teacher education, programs and institutions. Formal accreditation is being has been conducted since 2010-2011. The NACTE has accredited around 450 programs of more than 180 public and private sector teacher education institutions by 2019, which includes colleges and universities offering teacher education all over Pakistan. It was descriptive in nature, which focused on providing an accurate description of the impact of teacher education programs and institutions. This method was preferred as the study primarily sought to describe and understand the stakeholder’s response of the impact of accreditation on institution and program improvement, rather than determining any cause-and-effect relationship. The criteria for sample selection were based on the participation of the concerned faculty, HOD and external evaluators in the accreditation process of the programs offered by the institutions. Five point Likert scale was developed to collect data from the stakeholders HOD, Teacher Educators and External Evaluators. The use of mean, SD provided the basis for calculation, application and interpretation of t-test and ANOVA. Majority of participants said that accreditation process have high impact on improvement of teacher education programs. It is important question to participants about Program Accreditation whether it helped to improve teacher education program while some participants said that program accreditation sensitized the accountability of staff, administration and students. In conclusion, a number of important implications at both national and institutional levels for more effective accreditation are identified.