Moderation For Quality.

University teaching is the sole discretion of a teacher irrespective of his/her professional and social development, ability to deliver, and capability to comprehend class dynamics. Despite exceptional qualifications, there are still several aspects in teaching, learning and assessment process in higher education institutions (HEIs) which need attention. Curriculum development attracts major devotion probably in every university as a main task right from conception of the course to the development of contents. Guidelines from Higher Education Commission (HEC) are followed in every HEI to determine numbers and types of courses, credit hours, eligibility criteria etc. Both evolving and established accreditation bodies add to the exercise to strengthen almost every degree program in their domains through evaluation of course outlines and records in the form of folders. In some cases program and course level objectives have also been integrated in degree programs. These bodies have extended their influence to look into the classroom resources, student teacher ratio, departmental budgets and so on to enrich teaching and learning experience at university level.

However, university teachers by and large remain at their will for actual delivery and evaluation. These are two most important components which still remain out of the scope of even accreditation bodies. During their visit for periodic accreditation, members of the team do visit classrooms according to the protocols, but this is probably not enough for continuous quality improvement.

A huge gap exists in classroom teaching and evaluation mechanism of HEIs which deters quality of higher education in the country. Despite developing strong course handbooks there is no established mechanism in our universities to determine that appropriate content is delivered or not, either resource person is developed enough to extend his knowledge in a meaningful manner to the students, if s/he is capable of creating a conducive learning environment in a class.

A teacher may try to teach intricacies of business studies to a student, but whether the student learns something depends on many factors within and outside the teacher's control: Is the student motivated? Did the teacher use the appropriate instructional strategy? Is the student interested? Are the classroom and university conditions conducive to learning? Are the student's parents supportive? Is there enough time to digest the ideas and practice...