Exploring perceptions of teachers about accelerated curriculum and their teaching practices in non-formal basic education setting in two districts of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Philosophy in Education
Department
Institute for Educational Development, Karachi
Abstract
The rapid growth of out-of-school children has raised a key concern for countries’ progress and prosperity. The issue of out-of-school children is serious in Pakistan as it has 22 million children who have crossed the school-age and never been admitted into the formal school system. To address the issue of out-of-school children, various reforms are underway. One of them has been undertaken by the Government of Sind, Education and Literacy Department in 2016. Under this reform, an accelerated curriculum was developed and being implemented through ABC (pseudonym), a non-government organization for the last three years. This qualitative study explored perceptions of teachers through in-depth interviews about one of the three packages of the accelerated curriculum in Urdu language (Package A) and their practices of teaching it in the non-formal setting in two districts in the province of Sindh. The study found that the teachers opined that an accelerated curriculum helps them cover the five-year primary curriculum in 3.5 years without compromising the quality of learning. They also pointed out that the curriculum and associated training help to transform their teaching from lecturing to activity-based. They also highlighted some of the challenges related to the implementation of an accelerated curriculum. The core of the challenges lies in the fact that there is a communication gap between teachers and their supervisors. In addition, there are limited opportunities for the teachers to enhance their professional development. The study recommends that the concerned organization should consider the role of teachers as pivotal in the delivery of the curriculum so they would be engaged in curriculum designing and decision making regarding their professional development and resource allocation. There should be a better human resource policy for Non- Formal Education (NFE) to get teachers to sustain Non-Formal Basic Education (NFBE) setup. Keywords: Accelerated Curriculum, Teachers, non-formal basic education, alternative learning pathways, out-of-school children, children, and adults, Karachi.
Recommended Citation
Khan, I. (2020). Exploring perceptions of teachers about accelerated curriculum and their teaching practices in non-formal basic education setting in two districts of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan (Unpublished master's dissertation). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.