Teachers’ Licensing Process and Requirements: A Step towards Quality Assurance of Teachers in Pakistan

Author(s) : Shahwar Gul & Shafqat Hussain

Abstract:

The teachers in Pakistan are certified through different pre-service teacher training programs but still not given license for teaching in the classroom. However, efforts are being made to make a final and unified policy and a model for teachers’ licensing by different experts and provincial institutions under government recommendations, particularly in Punjab. The present paper analyzed the review of related literature and perception of primary, elementary, and secondary level teachers about licensing criteria, barriers, and issues in teacher licensing,andproposeda model of Teacher Licensing in Punjab. The study was basically descriptive in nature, as the researchers collected the data from the teachers using semi-structured questionnaire. The researchers proposed the model of teacher licensing in the light of teachers’ perception and document analysis regarding teachers licensing. All the teachers were considered as the population of the study. The sample of 600 teachers comprise 200 Primary School Teachers (PSTs), 200 Elementary School Teachers (ESTs), and 200 Secondary School Teachers (SSTs) which was selected using equal allocation approach of stratified random sampling. The teachers favored that academic qualification, professional qualification, and written exam may be the bases for obtaining a license to teach. Two types of licenses i.e. initial and professional are proposed for PSTs, ESTs, SSTs in Licensing Model with certain requirements.

Key Words: Certification, Licensing, Licensing criteria/Requirements, Licensing Model