Quality education: right of all children

The right to access quality education is a fundamental human right because it is the road that a learner follows to reach his full potential in life. Quality education helps to create ladder of opportunity for students. According to UNICEF, a quality education is defined by five elements: the learner's outside experiences, learning environment, content of education, learning processes, and education outcomes.
Still the quality education is a far fetch dream for many children across the world including Pakistan. It is a disheartening fact that literacy rate of Pakistan ranks below from Iran, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh. A top educationist opined, "Most of the primary schools, both in private and public sector, had been fast turning into junk factories. Cramming has superseded creativity, and the final product is just human debris."
The formula of quality education is the quality teaching to ensure student's achievement and provision of safe learning atmosphere.
Quality teaching to ensure student's achievement
Teachers are role models for their students. Their actions and behaviour have deep impacts on students. A teacher is responsible to create safe and caring environment in the classroom. A good teacher helps students to develop behavioural skills. Many schools hire unqualified and untrained teachers. These teachers are unable to engage their students through effective teaching practices. According to a UNESCO report, "majority of teachers are ignorant about lesson planning which renders them incapable of handling with multiple problems in the process of teaching and learning".
A mother argues that her daughter, a secondary school student, unable to grab the lesson in the class. When the teacher asks, "have you understood the lesson"? She afraid to say "NO".
The problem with poorly skilled teachers is that a majority of them has little or no consideration of student's learning process. These teachers are poor communicators, having not fully mastered their subjects. Students get frustrated when they do not learn something the first time it is taught. An experienced teacher recommends, "teachers with poor skills need to be taught to do better or shown the door. School authorities should sort them out and send them on to another career."
Recent student suicide events are an unfortunate reality in Pakistan. The alarming state of teenage suicidal incidents suggests that there is a missing link between teacher- student relationships. In the late 2015 two students of class X committed suicide in school. A teacher's role in a classroom should not confine to teaching data and basic skills. Being a mentor and role model, a teacher must take pains to solve moral issues as well.
Dress code of a teacher at school is an important part of the quality teaching. It sends the absolute message to students, "I take this seriously. I care about you." There are some notable private schools where teachers are directed to dress professionally. However, many teachers dress down in a little too much on the job. They often forget that what they wear must have a strong impact on students.
A study on clothing suggests that the more formally an individual dresses for any occasion, the more likely they are to have higher cognitive and abstract thinking. The researchers conclude that professional clothing makes one literally feel more important and powerful, leading their thinking in a similar direction. In addition, if an individual just thinks they look good in their more professional dress, then this belief in improved appearance leads to an overall better mood. Dressing professionally does not mean to ruin one's budget. It must be remembered that teacher's appearance affects students.
Safe learning environment is needed
A comprehensive safe school plan is vital to the well-being of the students. Studies have shown that student's achievement can be affected either positively or negatively by the school environment. Protection, sanitation, safe water supply, violence prevention, emergency response, healthy air quality is main issues of school environment.
Unsafe school/classroom environment is abruptly disturbing the learning process of students. On the other hand, by keeping classroom safe it becomes easy for teachers to motivate learners. It is the responsibility of school administration to ensure the provision environment free from fear, violence, and apprehension. In majority of our schools, little attention is paid towards social and emotional safety of young students.
One of the most common problems is corporal punishment by teachers. A vast majority of teachers (73%) either agrees or strongly agrees with the statement that corporal punishment is useful to maintain classroom discipline. Physical punishment contributes to student's social and emotional feeling unsafe, as a result, it undermines their ability to learn and develop in healthy ways.
Teen have fragile egos and turbulent emotions. They feel insulted when they hear insulting words from teachers; they lose their motivation and inspiration. They need extra attention to help them build self-respect and self-trust.
A teenage girl from Balochistan's Killa Saifullah district, who led a protest against suspension of classes at her college owing to a shortage of female teachers, committed suicide on Friday after the college principal refused to send her examination form to the intermediate education board, family members claim.
It is important to create a school climate that should discourage bullying, threats, insult, and terrorism. Students need to feel that it is psychologically "safe" to participate in academic and extracurricular activities. Students who are afraid often stay away from school. A safe learning environment encourages academic achievement, maintaining high grade, foster positive social relationships, and encourages teacher-student bonding.
Parent's point of view
We ask parents and students their views on safe school climate. Here is what they said:
Two third of parents said there are number of things school administration can do improve classroom culture. Mrs. Fatima, a housewife, views that under present circumstances it is important that teachers should take extra minutes to familiarize students how to respond with emergency. They need to know what to do under emergency.
A working mother said administration should pay attention to any feelings of fear. Explain what to do if the student does not feel safe. If student has been subject to harassment, teachers and principal should aware of it.
A retired secondary school teacher emphasis that both teachers and parents should keep the lines of communication opens with their students and children.
A mother of three-school going children says, "A clean and healthy atmosphere is very important for students. It directly affects the health of all students and staff." She stressed that "All school staff who are required to clean, sanitize, or disinfect should be appropriately trained on safety procedures, products, equipment and supplies."
Research has found that becoming a high-performing school takes many years of hard work. There is no silver bullet-no single thing a school can do to ensure high student performance. There should be a strong teamwork among teachers, school administration, and parents to provide quality education to every child of Pakistan.