Habibullah Khan Nasar
The concept of quality education appears to be a relative phenomenon varying in spirit and shape in different social settings. But, to a greater extent, a consensus over some fundamental quality indicators of education, particularly elementary education, appears among the developed societies: That constitute learner-centered approach to wherein the quality education discourse begins and ends around the needs of learners.
Intriguingly, the case is diametrically different when it comes to compose elements of quality education discourse in our part of the world. In the third world context, owing to various social and economic factors fundamental elements of quality education are swept under the carpet.
Modern psychology theory concerning human growth and personality development reveals that quality of learners precedes all other educational inputs such as content, learning environment, processes and outcomes. Thus quality of learners holds a central stage in the whole debate of quality education. Quality of learners highly depends on their early childhood psychosocial development experiences, good health and nutrition and family support. Healthy and well-nourished learners supported by their families and communities can play vital role in achieving quality education goals.
Hence the discourse on education must first take into consideration the aforesaid elements that produce quality learners. Let us consider the four elements one by one. As for health and nutrition of children is concerned, poor performance of health system supplies poor quality of learners to the education system. Unhealthy and malnourished children are the direct challenge for education system in terms of both access and quality. At the present time, child morbidity in the province is touching new heights owing to hardly functional health and nutrition service delivery that produces low quality learners. According to NNS 2011, 52 % children (under five) are stunted, 16 % wasted, 73.5 % are suffering from Vitamin A deficiency, 56.8 % suffer from Anemia and so on.
Do we calculate or consider the aforementioned factors that block the very process of learning while charting policy or intervention? It is about time the discourse of quality education absorbed the underlying elements that influence the learning processes and outcomes.
The point to emphasize is that there must be a strong coordination at least at the level of two important systems of health and education. Avenues must be sought as to how best inputs of the two systems can be aligned in fulfilling the needs of the children. A coordinated effort of the two systems at policy and execution level can bring about healthy, well-nourished and ready to learn learners. An interesting element of the proposed coordinated effort of health and education systems is that the two share strategic objectives: healthy, well-nourished and educated children. It is therefore necessary that poor health indicators related to children affect education indicators negatively and vice versa.
Early childhood psychosocial development experiences take place at home as well as at school. Thus it is of prime importance to underline that the debate of quality education exceeds the boundaries of schools. Here a strong link of family and community can be established with the system of education. Poor training at home enhances burden on the system of education. Children with psychological and emotional problems prove less productive in schools and their problems are exacerbated with the schools having inadequate psychological and emotional support. In this way, parental role cannot be underestimated in the delivery of quality education.
Another element of quality education is quality learning environment. It includes physical and psychological elements. Studies show that poor physical infrastructure discourage learners and teachers simultaneously. Schools that are devoid of basic facilities lower prospects of success in terms of enrollment, survival and transition. Similarly, the psychological aspect that includes safe environment, teachers’ behavior, discipline policies, non-violence can have enormous effects on the overall process of education. If the psychological environment in a school fulfills the underlying conditions, it bears fruits in the shape of high enrolment, survival and transition rates. And if the case is otherwise, the results are always abysmal. Studies show that teachers’ pleasant behavior, safe environment and non-violence contribute not only to better education outcomes but also these help promote better citizenship.
Quality of contents constitutes yet another important element of the quality education discourse. Better contents and their effective delivery play a phenomenal role in child’s intellectual growth and personality development. One basic purpose of the content is to focus on literacy and numeracy. But equally important is to train children in life skills at the school level. The element of life skills in primary education is of considerable importance. Because the children are central to the process of education, the contents must also be aligned not only to the intellectual and cognitive needs, but also these should cater to the physical, psychological and social needs that are equally essential for their healthy intellectual growth.
Another important quality education indicator is quality of processes that incorporates various underlying queries: Is the teacher trained up to the requisite standard? Is he applying cutting-edge teaching methodologies? Qualification and competence of teachers are considered the most important variables in the overall discussion of quality education throughout the industrialized world. Imposing untrained and below standard teachers on schools discourage learning processes. Therefore, in a bid to reform education and enhance quality of education in the province, we have to provide well-trained and well-qualified teachers to the schools.
Last but not least is the indicator of quality of learning outcomes: These may include quality of comprehension and expression and quality of cognition (analytical and critical faculties) etc. In our orthodox assessment system the emphasis is paid towards evaluating lower level cognitive faculties such as memory at the cost of ignoring superior cognitive faculty of critical analysis.
Hence the quality education discourse needs to focus the tested paradigm of student-centered learning and growth through holistic and well-integrated policy interventions.
Writer is a featured columnist.
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