Improving public school teachers in Pakistan: challenges and opportunities

This article tries to respond to a basic question: ‘can in-service teachers of public sectors in Pakistan be reformed?’ The authors’ response to this question is: ‘yes, public teachers can be reformed, if contextual possibilities are exploited efficiently’. Although a straightforward and simplistic response to the question, this was felt necessary to counter an unfavourable bias against public sector teachers in Pakistan without recognizing the challenges that they face, and without recognizing the potential of many of the public teachers who continuously strive to change these negative perceptions. This article recognizes the potential of public teachers and shares a relatively successful example of improving competencies among public teachers to support the response — the Cluster-Based Mentoring Programme (CBMP). Important features of the programmes are described along with discussion on its effectiveness and sustainability.