Impact of Women Empowerment on Fertility Preferences in Pakistan

Reproduction is an important aspect of a women's life, unfortunately in Pakistan fertility rates are quite high in comparison to other developing countries as well as in comparison to the other South Asian countries. Different studies have suggested that women empowerment can help reduce fertility rates. The present study has attempted to analyze the role of women empowerment along with other socioeconomic indicators on three different dimensions of the fertility behavior i.e. Number of children born (current fertility status), ideal number of children and birth intervals (future fertility status. Data of Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-13 has been used. The analysis consists of two levels, at level one a descriptive analysis is carried out. As three different aspects of fertility are the count data. Therefore at the next stage models will be estimated by using poison regression technique and Incidence Rate Ratios (IRR) are reported. It has been found that women’s being empowered in financial matters, seeking health care and in household decision making are helpful in reducing fertility. Furthermore, participation in job by women, living in urban areas, having secondary or higher education, access to awareness created by the media, married at higher age are also significant factors in reducing fertility. However, women facing incidence of miscarriage or death of a child tends to increase the fertility. Study had found that wealth of the household, education of husband and having sons have very limited role on the fertility behavior.

Relationship Between Instructional Leadership and Teachers’ Job Performance in Secondary Schools in the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Title: “RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP AND TEACHERS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE PROVINCE OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN”. Researcher: Zafar Khan Supervisor: Dr. Umar Ali khan University: Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Pakistan Year: 2012 Subject Area: Education Degree: PhD This study aimed at exploring teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership of secondary school heads and relationship of these perceptions with their performance on the job at secondary school level in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan).The population of study consisted of 4488 teachers working in secondary schools during academic year 2009-10. Six hundred and fifty secondary school teachers were selected by using stratified random sampling technique, 493 (309 male and 184 female) teachers from 14 districts of the province responded with a response rate of 76%. Two instruments were used to collect the data: Instructional leadership questionnaire (ILQ) and teacher job performance scale (TJPS). ILQ was developed by the researcher and reliability of ILQ was measured by using Cronbach alpha coefficient, resulting in 0.87 for formulating educational objectives, 0.85 for developing learning environment, 0.83 for protecting instructional time, 0.87 for supervising and monitoring the progress, 0.88 for promoting professional development, and 0.96 for the whole questionnaire. Teacher Job Performance Scale (TJPS), developed by Hanif (2004) was adapted for this study. Mean, Standard xdeviation, t-test, Correlation and regression were the statistical techniques used for the analysis of data.The results showed that teachers perceived instructional leadership of their school heads at moderate level in four functions, except for the function of providing learning environment that was perceived by teachers at higher level. Gender wise results showed that female secondary school heads were perceived better instructional leaders than their male counterparts in formulating educational objectives, providing learning environment, supervising and monitoring the progress, but in the functions of protecting instructional time and promoting professional development both are at the same level. No statistical significant difference was found in the teachers’ perception about instructional leadership of secondary school heads in rural and urban areas.A positive and statistical significant correlation at moderate level was found between Teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership with their job performance. There were 16 out of 20 pairs showed positive correlations between Perceived instructional leadership measures and teachers’ job performance at .05 levels of significance. Positive impact of perceived instructional leadership was found on teacher job performance. According to teachers’ perceptions, 37% estimate in their job is contributed by the instructional leadership of school heads. As the perceptions of teachers about instructional leadership increases their level of performance also increases. It was concluded that instructional leadership employed by secondary school heads is at moderate level and contribution of instructional leadership function promoting professional development in the promotion of teachers’ job performance is higher as compared to other four functions. Research study suggested that secondary school heads should pay more attention on supervision and monitoring of the instructional process in their schools. xiIt is further recommended to Elemenatry and Secondary Education Department that workshops seminars and conferences should be organized so that school heads’ and teachers come together to discuss their problems for bringing improvement in teaching learning. This study provided a foundation for further research and added a measurement tool to the leadership literature.