Need for teaching teachers how to teach

Speakers at an inter-provincial conference on "Education and Devolution: Opportunities and Experiences", held the other day, are reported to have emphasised the need for enhancing the capacity of all relevant professionals in the education sector at all the three tiers of government, in order to improve education standards.
Needless to point out, this thrust was expected of the conference, which was held by USAID/ESRA (Education Sector Reform Assistance) with the pre-defined purpose of discussing various issues linked to enhancement of awareness and understanding of educational issues at different tiers in the context of local government system.
It is, however, just another matter that the Minister of State for Education, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, chose to avail herself of the opportunity, understandably, to absolve the federal government of what might be viewed, rightly or otherwise, as a weakness on its part.
She will appear to have gone out of the way to aver that it had been whole-heartedly co-operating with lower tiers of government in promotion of education, and that due to lack of awareness or co-ordination, they failed to make full use of its gracious gestures, thereby passing the blame on to the lower tiers, the provincial and local governments.
In her capacity as the Minister of State for Education, she made no mistake in pronouncing that the federal government provided the provinces with funds, through proper channel, but they could not put them to desired use. As for its cause, she did not hesitate to declare that concerned officials at district level failed to handle utilisation of the funds properly.
More to this, elaborating on her claim, Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli stated that despite issuance of several reminders, the lower tiers of the government, sometimes, did not even care to submit their projects in time, thereby undermining the efforts for ensuring quality education. At the same time, ostensibly, with a view to dispelling the element of misconception with regard to utilisation of budgetary allocations for education sector, she took the stand that authentic figures related to the issue remained relegated to the background, so much so that they were yet to come.
Nevertheless, while lauding the USAID/ESRA for supporting the efforts in the education sector, she pointed out that the government, on its part, had been diverting more resources to train teachers, as they play the key role in the promotion of quality education. However, indisputable is her assertion about the need for training teachers how they should teach their pupils.
But one is apt to conclude that the funds advanced for this purpose do not appear to be properly used because of the disarray in the bureaucratic working at the lower tiers to which she, herself, had made a pointed reference. Even otherwise, what is taught and to what use, one is apt to infer that a great deal remains to be desired in so far proper training of the teachers is concerned.
It will thus be noted that the very purpose of educating the young generation is beaten for the sheer lack of adequately trained teachers. Enough light on this aspect of education was thrown by other participants in the conference, notwithstanding USAID/ESRA Director Richard F. Cartier's observations in his address of welcome that ESRA programmes for supporting Pakistan in the education sector were yielding concrete results.
Other speakers, including Mushtaq Shahani, Director PITE Sindh; Dr Rasul Bakhsh Raisani, Pro Vice Chancellor Balochistan University; Dr Rukhsana Zia, Director, Directorate of Staff Development Punjab; Fawad Shams, Director, Professional Development USAID/ESRA, noted that the subject of professional development should be incorporated into policy, pointing to the need of the government taking concrete steps to remove bureaucratic hurdles in the way of professional development, saying it should ensure that districts should have special budget for teachers' training and professional development.