Proposing Sociological Research on Children Health Problems in Pakistan

Like many low-income countries, Pakistan is facing children’s health problems. The major health problems affecting children in the country are Pneumonia, Diarrhoea, Measles, Malaria and malnutrition. There is much research has already been conducted on biomedical and epidemiological aspects of these health problems, but little is known about the social and cultural dimensions of children’s health issues. This paper attempts to propose the sociological research on children’s health problems in Pakistan with the emic focus on local context. The proposed future research may mainly be situated in the interpretivist paradigm of qualitative inquiry. Thus, it will contribute in up-scaling the very basic understanding of the meaning formed by people about social determinants of prevailing children health problems and their potential hazardous consequences in Pakistan.

A Study of the Impact of the Mentoring Process on Primary Teachers Professional Development in District Lasbella, Balochistan

Teacher Education plays a vital role in the development of quality education and implementing the change process at classroom level. The Primary Education Directorate, Government of Balochistan, with the cooperation of the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development has implemented the Primary Teacher Mentoring Program (PTMP) in eighteen districts of Balochistan. It is a new initiative in primary teacher education by the Government of Balochistan. This investigation is a qualitative case study focusing on the impact of the mentoring process on primary teachers' professional development in the District Lasbella, Balochistan. In this study the major sources for data collection were interviews, observations, informal talks, and documentation reviews. The obtained data has been analyzed and it has been found that the PTMP is a needs-oriented and indigenous model of mentoring process in which limited resources and contextual situation have been considered. It provides a built-in mechanism of on-going professional development support to the teachers. It is a cluster-based support, where 30-40 teachers of the cluster along with a mentor gather for two days in a month and discuss their classroom & school related teaching learning issues & concerns and sort them out. The mentoring process seems to have created a collaborative learning environment, which has reduced isolated teachers' culture, enhanced their content and pedagogical knowledge and developed teachers as reflective practitioners. Certain challenges are associated with the PTMP, which affect the performance of mentors and mentees and consequently impinge negatively upon overall achievement of the PTMP. These challenges are weak organizational / physical infrastructure & resource constraints, workload of Teaching Learning Resource Team (TLRT), weak feedback and monitoring system, limited school-based follow-up & support, non-cooperation of some district officials & headteachers, and rigid government rules and regulations. However, there are certain possibilities within the program design that may overcome some above-mentioned difficulties in near future. These are: (a) decentralization policy of the PTMP; (b) PED will be in a position to put more time and energy in the consolidation of the program in the year 2000; and (c) more PDTs may join the PED to enhance its institutional capacity building.