Abstract

Teaching is a prophetic profession. It requires a considerable amount of professional knowledge and skills that allows any individual to become a competent teacher and play his role successfully in the school environment. The government of KP recently gave an open opportunity for everyone to apply on each and every teaching cadre/posts of teaching without having the professional degree.  The purpose of study was to explore, compare and explain the concerns of stakeholders (professional degree holders) regarding this new recruitment policy for all cadres in district D.I.Khan. The mixed method, convergent parallel design was used for the study. Closed ended questionnaire on five point Likert scale (n=202) and semi-structured, open ended interview (n=12) as a tool was used for the study. Concerns regarding needs/importance of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of policy were pointed out.

Key Words

Professional Degree, New Policy, Recruitment, Concerns, D.I.K-KP

Introduction

Education plays an important role in making the person build his/her own view point about life. The education system to greater extent depends on the competency and quality of teachers and their fondness for teaching profession (Government of Pakistan GOP, 2009. The teachers serve as a craftsman, a master, an artist, a strategist and one of the great motivator. The professional awareness, preparation and degrees act as a root nerves for the better production of teachers for the future and to enhance learning outcomes of the students (Joyce & Showers, 2002).

Modern era looks for the teachers who are fully loaded with skills and are devoted to teaching profession. Professional preparation or preservice courses for the prospective teachers serves as the gatekeepers or entrance guards to careers in teaching. Students of today who are getting and equipping with knowledge about teaching skills pedagogical theory, and professional skills will serve as great teachers tomorrow. Professional courses develops the personal attributes, information, command and many features that are part of good teachers. (Bransford, Darling-Hammond, & LePage, 2005). Trainee teachers through such professional training develops the level of commitment in actual teaching situation and teaching experience during practicum which is under the guidance and supervision of expert teachers.  It is without any doubt that that quality of teacher education enhances with the professional courses and have prolific influence on the trainee teachers’ behavior, attitude and the level of enthusiasm in teaching profession (UNESCO, 2013). The international scenario in which students of countries like Singapore and Finland have higher performance than others stresses on demanding, effective and efficient teacher education programs for extracting best out of the prospective teachers (Hargreaves, Lieberman, Fullan & Hopkins, 2010; Sahlberg, 2010).

In Pakistan, there is a lot of focus on enhancing the teachers standing and making them capable received a noteworthy consideration for last few years. Quality of teachers can be improved by implementing and introducing quality pre-service teacher education programs. Previously, there was a policy for recruitment of teachers requiring professional degrees at different levels. PTC is necessary for primary school teachers, CT is required for elementary school teachers, Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC), B.Ed for secondary school teachers and for subject specialist and M.Ed is required professional degree for administrative posts like for head masters. ADE and B.Ed (Hons) programs were launched in efforts of raising the teacher education.  Pakistan is never behind in making an attempt to improve standards of education to meet the national and international criterions. In such an attempt of reforming, 18th amendment in national constitution was made, giving the provincial governments authority to bring beneficial changes in education sector. 

The KP government utilizes their authority as par the 18th amendment by presenting a much unexpected policy and unmatched attempt from the previous policies in educational sector, “Policy of eliminating and dropping out professional degrees for recruitment of teachers at different cadres”. This policy has a clash with previous recent policies (2009 and 2017) which only have suggested guidelines and betterment in teacher education and also opposed to international teacher education standards. This study focused on pinpointing the concerns of professional degree holders regarding this decision by the government of KP. 

Objectives of the Study

The objective of the study were:

1. To know the concerns of stakeholders regarding need of professional degrees, dropping out professional degrees and acceptance of new recruitment policy of teachers in KP. 

2. To compare, correlate and to find impact factor regarding concerns of stakeholders regarding need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and for the recruitment.

3. To compare qualitative and quantitative data.

4. To provide mixed interpretation for the study.




Research Questions

Following were the research questions for the study:

1. Why professional degrees are important for teachers for recruitment in teaching profession?

2. What would be your concerns in case of dropping out professional degrees in recruitment of teachers?

3. Do you agree with the new policy of the government for the selection of teachers at KP?




Research Hypotheses

Following were the null hypothesis of this study:

H01: There is no significant relationship between need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of new recruitment policy.

H02: There is no significant impact of need of professional degree and dropping out professional degree on acceptance of new recruitment policy.

H03: There is no significant difference in concerns of stakeholders (male/female, teachers/students) regarding need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of new recruitment policy.

H04: There is no significant difference between and within the groups (Institution wise) regarding need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of new policy.




Significance of the Study

This study may help in knowing the concerns of teachers about dropping out the professional degree for the recruitment of teacher in KP. Teachers’ views and comments will surely demonstrate their favor or disapproval about step by the KP Government. Students who are enrolled in different programs of teacher education have direct concerns regarding this policy, it will explore their key views about this policy. This study may be helpful in developing a true picture of the level of likeness for this policy.

Literature Review

Teaching as a profession

Professionalism is the combination of feelings, affection and actions which are concerned and considered important to meet the needs of the given profession or occupation. Professionalism is the acquisition and displaying of specific qualities necessary for the given job/profession. It is the demonstration of actions and feelings which prefers organizational goals over the personal/individual goals (Directorate of Staff Development, 2006). Teaching is a profession as it full fills the criteria of being a profession. It involves certification, have acceptance in society, there is some salary and also there is some training given to a person who is going to teach in educational institutes (Van Til, 1971). Teaching profession require specific amount of knowledge of different areas to have an effective and efficient teaching in schools, colleges and universities. Professional degrees are important for all the professions like for doctors, engineers and bankers. Nobody can serve their role without having the degrees related to their profession. Likewise, teaching profession also required a specific degree in order to be selected at different cadres and serve their role appropriately. It was a fact that those who have familiarization, knowledge, training and practice, and all the characteristics of the respected profession can put best efforts and leads to best results (Hansen?Thomas, Casey & Grosso, 2013)

Teaching Attitude

Nobody can deny the importance of the feelings or attitude of an individual towards his/her profession. This is vital aspect which make people feel good and healthy within the organizational setting and keep on working for the welfare of the community. There is extreme necessity for an individual have a positive attitude towards teaching profession before actually entering into that field (Trivedi, 2012). Teacher with adorable attitude for this profession leads to betterment of individual by creating friendly, promotive, understanding, belongingness and sense of cooperation with students so that they feel relax and keep their focus on learning. Teaching is one of the great and pious profession but usually people do not think of it as profession. Teachers are nation builders with professional attitude can influence students and prepare them for future innovations and development. Today many individual take themselves into teaching profession just because of earning without any fondness and personal affection towards teaching. Such teachers cannot be able to transfer knowledge and education to students leading to ineffective teaching-learning process and failure of education system. Not only the educational system but also ruins the reputation of this pious profession (Belagali, 2011). 




Professional Qualification and Demand of the Modern World

Proficient, qualified and devoted teachers are the desideratum of the modern and innovative time in order to compete and survive in this progressive world. Effective training of the students according to the new technology is vital part of teacher education. Teachers must have adequate and appropriate knowledge before entering into teaching profession. (Anwer, Tahir and Batool, 2012). More qualification and familiarization about teaching and basic requirements for the teaching profession will ultimately generate best outcomes. Lack of the familiarization and absence of basic qualification will cause challenges in teaching students. The competency of teachers and teaching profession is prime determinant of advancement in nation. The reason behind this fact is teachers throughout the world committed to develop new batch and elevates the economic conditions of the country (Sood & Anand, 2010). For teachers to be called as committed and devoted simply means the acceptance of the purpose of  the teaching profession  with high level of enthusiasm confirming the solid eagerness to perform duty in schools and colleges. The teachers in teaching profession needs to have technical skills, the strength to apply those skills, high level of cognitive power and criteria to evaluate someone’s abilities. Teacher in his/her teaching must have personal interest, abilities and talent (Goswami & Choudhury (2016). 

The practice before an actual teaching situation leads to many beneficial outcomes like Prospective teachers came to know the basic qualities of a good teachers and an exercise of adopting those qualities for the improvement of teaching-learning process and to become a role model, making positive changes in education system and with such changes, improvement of the society, to elevate their inner believe on themselves as teachers and to become innovative and change maker (Shahid, 2007). It is necessary for the teachers to have command on some basic components on which their performance and express themselves in a smooth and flexible manner within classroom as well as in school setting. The pedagogical skills, professional skills and philosophical knowledge about teaching-learning process are considered as backbone and are quite important for professional success of teacher in modern society (Farooq & Shahzadi, 2006).




Qualities Needed for Effective Teaching 

Command on subject matter knowledge, pedagogical skills, lesson planning, class room management, teaching methodology, communication skills, motivation of the students and assessment of the students plays a pivotal role in professional teaching of all teachers. All these factors are important for the teachers for promoting conducive teaching-learning process (Qureshi, 2008). 

This study also focused to explore as well as explain the concerns of students and teachers about importance of professional degrees keeping in view various important factors from literature review for prospective/upcoming teachers and the concerns in case of dropping out professional for the recruitment of teachers and the acceptance of new recruitment policy for teachers as revealed by the stakeholders.

Research Methodology

This study was conducted in district Dera Ismail Khan located in the south of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province of Pakistan. The study was intended to explore and explain the concerns of teacher and students about dropping out the professional degrees for the recruitment of the teachers and was deliberated to recommend. Convergent parallel design was applied for extracting the accurate results and appropriate outlining of the conclusions. In this design, quantitative and qualitative data was collected at the same time but analyzed separately and then merged. The explanation and results were presented in joint display. (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011).

Population comprised of the teachers and students of RITE and IER Gomal University. Through simple random sampling and lottery technique, sample for quantitative and qualitative part was selected by using sample size formula (Gay, 1996).

 

Table#1. Sample of the Study

Respondents	RITE		IER
	Male	Female	Male	Female
Teachers	08	08	7	4
Students	27	23	70	109

(RITEs/IER, 2017)

 

12 participants were selected for the purpose of interview as saturation was achieved under this sample (Guest et al., 2006).

 

Table#2.  Interview Respondents

Respondents	RITE		IER
	Male	Female	Male	Female
Teachers	01 (R1)	01(R2)	01(R3)	01(R4)
Students	02(R5-R6)	02(R7-R8)	02(R9-R10)	02(R11-R12)

A closed ended questionnaire was used for extracting the concerns related to need of professional degree, concerns in case of dropping out the professional degree and acceptance of the policy of government. It followed the 5 point Likert scale pattern (Likert, 1932). SPSS version 20 was used for statiscal coverage (descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation and multiple regression) of quantitative part of the study. Experts from IER and RITE teachers, the instrument was validated by means of grammar, removal of irrelevant items and merging of similar items. Through pilot study (n₌20), reliability of closed ended questionnaire was measured through Cronbach’s Alpha which was found as r₌.738. The final list of the items were 25 with 10 items (positive) for need of professional degree, 10 items (negative) for concerns in case of dropping out professional degree  and 5 items (positive) for acceptance of the policy. An Open-ended, semi structured questionnaire (3 questions) was made for further explanation of the concern in detail through interview with the consultation of experts of IER Gomal University D.I.Khan. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data analysis and coding, to find out the major themes regarding the topic.

Figure 1

Procedural framework



Figure 2

Theoretical framework



Adapt from Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011

Findings

Table 3.  Descriptive Statistics

Status of Respondents	Description	Frequency	Percent
Institution	RITE 1	35	17.3
	RITE 2	31	15.3
	IER	136	67.3
Gender	male	112	55.4
	female	90	44.6
Stakeholders	Teacher	27	13.4
	Student	175	86.6

 

T-TESTS

Table 4.  T-Test for Gender Regarding three Variables Related to Professional Degrees

Variables	Gender	N	Mean	SD	Sig.	t-cal	t-tab
Need of professional degrees	Male	112	4.1339	.42097	.927	-.083	1.96
	Female	90	4.1389	.41966
Dropping out professional degrees	Male	112	4.2241	.55251	.958	.053
	Female	90	4.2200	.55226
Acceptance of policy	Male	112	1.7607	.14909	.876	.034
	Female	90	1.7600	.15050

 

Table#4 revealed that mean difference on the basis of gender for three variables was very minute. T-test was then applied to know significant difference. The t-cal values were less than t-tab values and p-values are greater than significance level of 0.05. So there is no significant difference on the basis of gender. Concerns regarding need of professional degree were high as the mean values were very high. The concerns regarding dropping out professional degree were even higher as the mean values were displayed in the table which show their agreement to losses. The acceptance of the policy was very low because the mean values were very low indicating the rejection of the policy.

 

Table 5.  T-Test for Stakeholders Regarding three Variables Related to Professional Degrees.

Variables	Stakeholders	N	Mean	SD	Sig.	t-cal	t-tab
Importance of professional degrees	Teacher	27	4.1148	.43119	.777	-.283	1.96
	Student	175	4.1394	.41866
Dropping out professional degrees	Teacher	27	4.2370	.56306	.882	.149
	Student	175	4.2200	.55076
Acceptance of policy	Teacher	27	1.7630	.14715	.924	.096
	Student	175	1.7600	.15010

 

Table#4 revealed that mean difference on the basis of stakeholders for three variables was very minute. T-test was then applied to know significant difference. The t-cal values were less than t-tab values and p-values are greater than significance level of 0.05. So there is no significant difference on the basis of gender. Concerns regarding need of professional degree were high as the mean values were very high. The concerns regarding dropping out professional degree were even higher as the mean values were displayed in the table which show their agreement to losses. The acceptance of the policy was very low because the mean values were very low indicating the rejection of the policy.

 

 

ANOVA.

Table 6. ANOVA for Institutions Regarding three Variables

Variables		Sum of Squares	Df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Need of professional degrees	Between Groups	.003	2	.002	.009	.991
	Within Groups	35.343	199	.178
	Total	35.346	201
Dropping out professional degrees	Between Groups	.019	2	.010	.032	.969
	Within Groups	61.010	199	.307
	Total	61.030	201
Acceptance of policy	Between Groups	.000	2	.000	.001	.999
	Within Groups	4.483	199	.023
	Total	4.483	201

 

Table#6 depicted that there is no significant difference of concerns by means of institutions (between and within the group) regarding three variables. The p-values were greater than significance level.

 

Correlation

Table 7. Showing Correlation Among Variables Regarding Professional Degrees

Variables		Importance	Dropping out	Policy
Need of professional degrees	Pearson Correlation	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)
	N	202
Dropping out professional degrees	Pearson Correlation	-.512**	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
	N	202	202
Acceptance of policy	Pearson Correlation	-.534**	-.945**	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000
	N	202	202	202

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

 

Table#7 showed that there is a significant negative correlation among the variables need of professional degree was negatively correlated to acceptance of policy (-.534) which is moderate negative and similarly the dropping out professional degree was also negatively correlated to acceptance of policy (-.945) which was highly negative. It was obvious that need for professional degree was high due to which acceptance of policy decreases. Similarly, concerns regarding dropping out professional degree were even higher due to which acceptance of policy decreases.

 

Regression Analysis.

Table 8.  Shows the Model Summary (Regression Analysis)

Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate	F	Sig.
1	.945a	.894	.893	.04895	1680.979	.000b
2	.947b	.897	.896	.04829	867.028	.000c

a. Predictors: (Constant), Dropping out professional degree

b. Predictors: (Constant), dropping out professional degree and need of professional degree

 

Table#8 depicted two best fit models. But the second model is more appropriate. It displayed adjusted R2, which indicates the percentage of the variance in the acceptance of the policy due to need of professional degree and dropping out professional degree. The Adjusted R square value was .896 which indicated that the need of professional degree and dropping out professional degree cause the 89.6% of the variance in the acceptance of the policy. F-test (867.028, p< 0.05) clearly demonstrate that this model was good fit for the data. As par the p- value this model is significant.

 

Table 9. Coefficients

Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	.147	.039		3.726	.000
	DPD	.914	.022	.945	41.000	.000
2	(Constant)	.306	.073		4.171	.000
	DPD	.880	.026	.911	34.384	.000
	NPD	-.024	.009	-.068	-2.557	.011

a. Dependent Variable: AOP (Acceptance of the policy)

 

Table#9 revealed that the need of professional degree (NPD) and dropping out professional degree (DPD) contributed to acceptance of policy. The unstandardized regression coefficients, b in a regression model indicate the strength of the extent of the impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable, when all other independent variables are held constant. The regression equation has the following form:-

AOP (Acceptance of policy) = AOP (constant) + dropping out professional degree + need of professional degree.

AOP (Acceptance of policy) = .306+ .880+ -.024

The equation shows that one unit change in dropping out professional degree leads to .880 change in acceptance of the policy that is leads to acceptance/approval of the policy due to direct relation. While one unit change in need of professional degree leads to -.024 change in acceptance of the policy that is rejection of the policy due to indirect relation.

 

Table 10. Showing Excluded Variable (Regression Analysis)

Excluded Variablesa
Model		Beta In	t	Sig.	Partial Correlation	Collinearity Statistics
						Tolerance
1	Importance of professional degree	-.068b	-2.557	.011	-.178	.737

a. Dependent Variable: Acceptance of degree

b. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), Dropping out professional degree (DPD)

 

Table 11. Showed that Excluded Variables was need of Professional Degree. It means that need of Professional Degree had the least impact on acceptance of the Policy.

Summary of the Hypothesis	Code	Results
There is no significant relationship between need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of	H01	Rejected
There is no significant impact of need of professional degree and dropping out professional degree on acceptance of new recruitment policy.	HO2	Rejected
There is no significant difference in concerns of stakeholders (male/female, teachers/students) regarding need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of new recruitment policy.	HO3	Accepted
There is no significant difference between and within the groups (Institution wise) regarding need of professional degree, dropping out professional degree and acceptance of new policy.	H04	Accepted

 

Results of Qualitative Interviews, Coding and Themes

Table 12. Representation of themes Extracted from Interview

#	Responses	Coding
R1-Q1	It make individuals familiar with teaching. Professional courses before entering into the profession leads to attitude development among students to become good teachers.	Familiarization with teaching. Attitude development
R1-Q2	It will only reduce the success of rate education and teacher quality as well as individuals.	Reduced quality of education/teachers
R1-Q3	I think six month training will not be work well in comparison to other increased time professional training. Need to revise the policy!	Insufficient time Disagreement with the policy.
R2-Q1	Teacher must be well aware of in each and every aspect. Engulf as much knowledge as possible to become better than others. Impart sufficient skills needed for teaching profession.	Familiarization with teaching. Adaptation of sufficient skills.
R2-Q2	If professional degrees are dropped out, the quality of teachers will be not so good by means of commitment, knowledge and skills.	Reduced quality of teachers/education Less committed Low knowledge Lesser skills.
R2-Q3	Six months training can bring positive results as something is better than nothing but not good as professional degree. Professional degree should be made compulsory.	Insufficient time Less devotion. Less motivated Disagreement to policy
R3-Q1	To socialize the students as par the needs of the society, teacher need to have knowledge and awareness about all aspects of students. Teaching methodology can improve behavior!	Socialize prospective teachers. Familiarization. Teaching methodology.
R3-Q2	Loss of individual assets like time and finances, assets and everything concerned with teachers. Students will not get quality education.	Wastage of resources. Reduced quality of education and teachers.
R3-Q3	Proper teacher’s development cannot take place in six months training. It makes no logic to remove professional degree for selection of candidates.	Insufficient time. Disagreement to policy.
R4-Q1	Appropriate attitude for this profession can be developed. Other thing is commitment to profession which is build up during this period.	Attitude and commitment development to teaching profession.
R4-Q2	There would be time wastage and money of professional degree holders. They get demotivated, hard work will be decreased.	Demotivation. Less hard work.
R4-Q3	Six month training for selected candidates will not work... I do not think it as a good step by the government of KP. Frustration would be increased	Insufficient time of training. Disagreement to policy.
R5-Q1	Learn what to teach and how to teach. Teaching methods and classroom management better learned in professional courses	Familiarization. Teaching methodology. Classroom management.
R5-Q2	Becoming a good teacher, requires hard work. Greater level of motivation and competition. Absence of pre-service leads to opposite effects.	Less hard work. Low motivation. Low competition.
R5-Q3	In six month training, how better results can be achieved? It is senseless policy!	Ineffective results Disagreement with policy.
R6-Q1	In professional courses, you receive a lot of practice. You consistently improve your skills!	Teaching practice leads to improvement.
R6-Q2	Totally injustice and unfair decision for professional degree holders. The institutions would be of no use… Simply. Teachers in RITE and IER would be … No worth as well!	Injustice and unfairness. Institutions and teachers will lose their worth.
R6-Q3	These six month can be used as compensation of professional degrees and courses. Seems less positive act!	Insufficient professional courses. Disagreement.
R7-Q1	Method get clear, handling of the students, motivation, interest, important for society. Courses leads to increase in employment rate as people get jobs in educational institutions.	Teaching methodology. Classroom management. Learning of Child psyche. Increase employment rate.
R7-Q2	Another thing is that getting a job against 10,000 is difficult than against 5,000.	Difficult to compete with greater candidates
R7-Q3	Training is 1/3 is 1.5 Years. Inappropriate for professional degrees holders who spend 4 years.	Insufficient time. Disagreement to policy.
R8-Q1	They get knowledge and skills of the profession. Methodology which are needed to treat students. Growth and development process of a child. Class management is also learned in a good way.	Skills learning. Learning methods. Child psychology.
R8-Q2	Non-professional cannot be able to socialize and cannot be able to manage students accordingly.	No socialization and management by untrained.
R8-Q3	Six month training cannot be sufficient for better learning. Professional degree has no replacement.	Insufficient time to learn many skills. Disagreement with policy.
R9-Q1	How a person can teach who even do not know ABC of teaching. No methods, no devotion for teaching and not able to gauge learning.	Teaching methods. Commitment. Assessment strategies.
R9-Q2	Leads to frustration. There would be a loss of finances and time devoted to these degrees.	Frustration Financial and time loss
R9-Q3	Six month training and its positive results. Not possible! Policy needed to be reviewed.	Ineffective results Disagreement to policy.
R10-Q1	It make individuals familiar with teaching.  Acquire best attitude for this profession. They know different methods of teaching, management, and assessment and implement them.	Familiarization. Attitude development. Methods & management. Assessment.
R10-Q2	Financial losses, time wastage. Leads to demotivation and frustration regarding the job.	Finance and time loss. Demotivation/frustration
R10-Q3	No! No further comments (being busy…)	Disagreed
R11-Q1	It promotes knowledge about teaching and teaching skills like growth and development of child.	Familiarization. Child psychology.
R11-Q2	Teaching would be less effective.	Less effective results
R11-Q3	Professional courses by all means are beneficial. Best results. Teachers become competent and get command.	Ineffective results. Competency decreased.
R12-Q1	Teachers’ attitude is developed properly. Leads to development of skills and communication power.	Attitude making. Communication power.
R12-Q2	Dropping out professional degree leads to heart burning and demotivation.	Heart burning and demotivation
R12-Q3	Non-professional degree holders cannot be helpful and sufficient as they have no previous base. Previous policy is excellent by all means.	Not helpful. Insufficient time. Disagreement to policy.

 

Table 13. Themes from Interview data Through Coding

Codes	Broader themes	Refined themes
Attitude and commitment for teaching.	Interest development	Importance of professional degree
Familiarization with teaching profession.	Learning of teaching skills
Teaching methodology.
Classroom management.
Adaptation of sufficient skills.
Assessment strategies.
Socialize teachers for future training.
Teaching practice improve teaching.
Child psychology.
Increase employment rate
Communication skills adaptation.
Motivation techniques
Leads to demotivation.	Influence of Dropping out professional degree
Time wastage.
Financial losses.
Reduction in quality of education/teachers
Institutions/teachers become useless.
Less motivation.
Less skills
Students would do less hard work.
Students would not compete properly.
Results would be ineffective.
More candidates less posts.
Heart burning/frustration.
Six months are insufficient.	Keen views on policy	Rejection of policy
Injustice and unfair for professional.
Disapproval of the policy.
Six month would not be helpful.

 

Table 13.  Joint display

Area	Qualitative findings n=12	Quantitative findings n=202	Mixed method Interpretation
Needs/importance of professional degree.	Attitude and commitment for teaching. Familiarization with teaching profession. Teaching methodology. Classroom management. Adaptation of sufficient skills. Assessment strategies Socialize teachers for future training. Teaching practice improve teaching. Child psychology. Communication skills. Motivation techniques.	81.96% agreed. Mean greater than 3 (cut point) showing agreement with the importance of professional statement of questionnaire. T-test: p-value greater than 0.05 (no difference in views male/female/teachers/students) Anova:  p-values are greater than 0.05 (no difference among institutions-rite male/female/Ier) Correlation: correlation with Acceptance of policy was -.534 (moderate) meaning as importance of degree increases acceptance of policy decreases. Regression: It has least impact on acceptance of degree .945 and explain dependent variable up to 68%.	Need/importance of professional degree cannot be denied as it make prospective teachers fully loaded and packed with numerous skills that are demand of progressive and modern world. Extended period of time leads to more knowledge, practice and improvement. This period before job make students acquire maximum command on teaching skills through motivation, hard work and more competition to get selected for teaching posts.
Influence of dropping out professional degree	Leads to demotivation. Time wastage. Financial losses. Reduction in quality of education/teachers Institutions/teachers become useless. Less motivation. Less skills Students would do less hard work. Students would not compete properly. Results would be ineffective. More candidates less posts. Heart burning/frustration.	74.21% disagreed with positive statements in questionnaire. Mean score was less than 3 which shows the disagreement with statements. T-test: p-values greater than 0.05 (no difference in views- male/female/teachers/students) Anova: p-values are greater than 0.05 (no difference among institutions-rite male/female/Ier. Correlation: correlation with acceptance of policy was -.512 (moderate) means dropping out professional degree leads to rejection of policy. Regression: the impact of this variable was greater .947. Its removal will cause acceptance of policy.	Dropping out professional degree for teachers recruitment have number of problems which may be directly related to professional degree holders like time loss, financial losses, heart burning, frustration and discouragement for previous hard work. The overall big negative aspect for whole society is the quality of teachers mainly in terms of beneficial skills needed for the effective teaching will be lesser and it will affect badly the overall present education i.e. making situation even worst.
Acceptance of policy	Insufficient time. Ineffective results. Injustice and unfair for professionals. Six months will not be helpful. Disagreement with policy	87% disagreed with positive statements in questionnaire. Mean scores was less than 3 showing disagreement with statements. T-test: p-values greater than 0.05 (no difference in views- male/female/teachers/students) Anova: p-values are greater than 0.05 (no difference among institutions-rite male/female/Ier. Correlation: correlation with need and dropping professional degree was negative (moderate) means dropping out professional degree leads to rejection of policy and ignoring the need/importance also produce same results. Regression: Dropping out professional degree is the impact factor in acceptance of policy.	Acceptance of policy is not possible keeping in view the prime concerns of stakeholders especially professional degree holders. Professional degree are important for selection in all other professions as well then why not in teaching? Professional degrees must be made compulsory for the recruitment of the teachers. After selection, no matter how much training will be arranged after regular intervals for more improvement as it is the need of changing time. But Six month training is useless as counterpart for professional degree (which has minimum 1.5 years course to 4 years courses) is not justifiable. Results will become ineffective. There is a need to rethink and replan this policy.

Discussion

The findings of the study in terms of need/importance of professional degree and courses revealed similarity with different studies with different variables used. Professional qualification is essential for teachers to be more competent for students’ best results (Hansen?Thomas, Casey & Grosso, 2013). The knowledge of teaching and important concepts like methodology, assessment, management and understanding students are vital components to be the best teachers (Shahid, 2007). Teacher’s commitment is a key element in education process that can build through pre-service training which train individual to understand teaching profession and the qualities that are needed for good teaching. Professional courses enable individuals to make teaching preferable to other professions rather than making it last choice (Crosswell, 2006). Attitude and commitment towards teaching profession is vital for bright and prosperous education system which is possible by putting major focus on the pre-service courses which is professional courses before entering into the profession. Professional commitment is accepting a profession by heart and mind to full involve in efforts that bring positive changes at different education level (Ferris, 2001). Attitude and commitment to teaching profession is necessary by all means for the personal, students and nationwide success (Trivedi, 2012). Motivation, hard work, socializing himself/herself and also to socialize students (Veenman,1984) as well in future are learning concepts for prospective teachers during the professional courses to deliver best possible in future (Goswami & Choudhury, 2016).

Conclusion

There was a negative concern regarding dropping out the professional degrees. Students and teachers were keen to have professional degrees as part of recruitment policy for teachers in KP. The policy was inacceptable due to the point of dropping the professional degrees for the teachers’ recruitment. From the views of stakeholders it was evident that policy will be acceptable only when this point is removed and condition of professional degrees is applied in this policy.

Recommendations

Based on the findings, it is recommended that professional degree may be made compulsory for recruitment of the teachers because of its prime importance. It is recommended to consider views of professional degree holders about the dropping out professional degree for recruitment at different cadres. It is also recommended to have a healthy review on this policy to have better satisfied situation for the students (prospective teachers).




Guidelines for future study

This type of study can be conducted on non-professionals to have their concerns about this new policy. This type of study can be conducted in other districts of KP. Comparative study regarding the concerns of professionals and non-professionals regarding this new policy can be conducted. 

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