A survey on teaching quality along with system-wide classroom observations confirmed that teachers follow poor teaching practices. This had led the government to conclude that existing data systems and cascade training was inadequate. A technology that could show teachers good practice, provide opportunities to practice, with the potential to reach all teachers became the logical answer
The Innovative Teacher Support Package (ITSP) is a continuous professional development program, supported by the World Bank’s PESP-3 program. The course is available via an android app or through a Moodle website. The content is presented in a digital format and covers 11 specific teaching practices (local adaptation of validated Teach tool) and contains information, videos, and infographics on effective teacher classroom practices. The app guides teachers to self-study and practice to improve. Additionally, ITSP is connected with monthly face-to-face mentoring sessions where school mentors (Assistant Education Officers [AEOs]) observe teachers and provide tailored feedback. This is reinforced with monthly Teacher Forums where teachers shared good practices. The data collected from the AEOs is used to improve the ITSP by improving the material for which teachers struggle. Moreover, the package is scalable, allowing for new modules to be added as new needs arise.
Despite school closures due to COVID, ITSP has been a breakthrough intervention, which introduces remote learning for 193,000 primary school teachers & 3,300 school mentors, allowing them to use this time to upgrade their skill set. A pilot was done successfully in the first 2 months of pandemic when the country was in complete lockdown. ITSP is a low-cost intervention, costing approx. $6.9/user/year, making it a long-term solution. Moreover, modules in ITSP are being updated, based on continuous feedback from teachers, making it a sustainable solution to teachers for improving their pedagogical skills. Currently, there have been 85k+ unique logins and users have responded positively to ITSP during feedback sessions, emphasizing its importance in their continuous professional development
The School Education Department (Punjab) may be contacted to understand/adapt the model. As a first step, a needs assessment using a classroom observation tool is needed to gauge current status of teaching practices. All course content is open source & accessible by these links: https://itsp.punjab.gov.pk/ (UN:qa_live; PW:qwerty12345), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a-I3ihgjPQ&feature=emb_title
