Impact of Accreditation on Improvement of the Teacher Education Programs/Institutions in Pakistan

In Pakistan, an accreditation system has been introduced to accredit teacher education programs and initiatives are being taken to begin the registration, licensing, and certification process of teachers. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan has declared the accreditation of teacher education programs mandatory. All the institutions offering any graduate-level teacher education programs are required to get the accreditation of their programs. The National Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (NACTE) has accredited around 450 programs of more than 180 public and private sector teacher education institutions, which include colleges and universities, offering teacher education all over Pakistan. The current research is descriptive, which focused on providing an accurate description of the impact of teacher education programs, and the institutions equipped with the facility. This method was preferred as the study primarily sought to describe and understand the stakeholders' response to the impact of accreditation on the institution and program improvement, rather than ascertaining any cause-and-effect relationship. The criterion for sample selection was based on the participation of the faculty concerned, the head of department (HOD), and the external evaluators in the accreditation process of the programs, offered by the institutions. A five-point Likert scale was developed to collect data from the stakeholders (HOD, teacher educators, and external evaluators). The use of mean, SD, provided the basis for calculation, application, and interpretation of t-test and ANOVA. The results show that majority of participants were of the view that the accreditation process has a high impact on the improvement of teacher education programs.