By Karim Muhammad Khan
Quality education begins with quality teachers. In a region as diverse and geographically challenging as Gilgit-Baltistan, teachers’ professional growth is not a luxury—it is a necessity.
The School Education Department of Gilgit-Baltistan (SED GB) oversees around 1,800 primary to higher secondary schools and employs approximately 8,000 teachers. To respond effectively to changing curricula, diverse learning needs, and the region’s varied cultural contexts, these teachers require sustained academic support—not isolated training sessions.
Meaningful instructional improvement requires continuous support within schools and classrooms. When education systems invest in mentoring, regular instructional coaching, and collaborative peer networks, teachers can test new approaches, receive constructive feedback, and refine their practice in real time.
The Limits of Centralized Training
Professional development for in-service teachers in Gilgit-Baltistan currently depends heavily on two institutions. The Teacher and Staff Development Centre (TSDC), operating under SED GB in Gilgit, provides training to government teachers. The Professional Development Centre North (PDCN), established under Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), has also contributed significantly to building the capacity of teachers and administrators in both Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKESP) schools and government schools across the region.
These institutions play an important role, but centralized training alone is unlikely to produce lasting improvements without a strong system for classroom observation, follow-up, and constructive feedback.
AKESP schools benefit from ongoing monitoring, classroom observation, and feedback at the cluster and school levels. Most government schools, however, lack a similarly systematic mechanism for providing teachers with academic support where it matters most: in schools and classrooms.
SED GB’s heavy reliance on centralized training is also costly and resource-intensive. It requires teachers to travel considerable distances and can disrupt classroom instruction when workshops take place during school hours.
Research indicates that episodic, centralized training detached from classroom realities is often insufficient to produce lasting pedagogical change. By contrast, decentralized, cluster-based professional development can improve classroom practice and student achievement while offering a more practical and cost-effective alternative (Rampa and Mphahlele, 2014; World Bank, 2022; Nafisa, 2025).
Turning School Clusters Into Learning Hubs
A decentralized model would turn each cluster high school and its feeder schools into a professional learning community. Instead of expecting teachers to travel repeatedly to distant training centres, professional support would be delivered regularly in the settings where teachers work.
This approach could address persistent challenges involving distance, cost, and continuity. It could also help close gaps between the prescribed curriculum and its implementation in government-school classrooms.
SED GB already possesses a valuable resource for building such a system: the pool of master trainers certified by PDCN. Their expertise could be used more systematically through several institutional measures:
- Assign certified master trainers to cluster high schools to conduct regular classroom observations and provide on-site academic support to teachers from the primary to higher secondary levels.
- Organize subject-based teacher groups within each cluster, led by designated subject coordinators, to promote collaborative lesson planning, peer teaching, and critical reflection.
- Hold monthly cluster workshops focused on teachers’ immediate classroom challenges rather than relying only on generic, one-off training programmes.
- Establish a regular feedback cycle connecting classroom observation, coaching, professional reflection, and follow-up support.
- Provide adequate resources by ensuring that the system receives sustained material, financial, and technological support.
Together, these measures would create a practical system of continuous professional development and strengthen both classroom instruction and student learning.
A Hybrid Model for Lasting Impact
Decentralizing professional development does not mean abandoning centralized training. National, provincial, and district-level workshops remain essential for familiarizing teachers and education managers with revised policies, national priorities, curriculum changes, and global best practices.
However, centralized workshops should be treated as the beginning of professional learning, not its conclusion. Training produces meaningful results only when teachers receive sustained school-level support to apply new knowledge in their classrooms.
The most effective way forward is therefore a hybrid model: centralized training for policy alignment and system-wide priorities, combined with decentralized, cluster-based support for continuous improvement in classroom practice.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s geography will always present challenges, but it should not determine the quality of teaching available to its children. By transforming cluster high schools into professional learning hubs, SED GB can provide every teacher with regular opportunities to strengthen pedagogical content knowledge, improve instructional practice, and learn collaboratively.
The shift required is simple but significant: teacher development must move beyond the workshop and into the classroom. With strong monitoring, sustained resources, and consistent academic support, better training can lead to better teaching—and better learning for every child in Gilgit-Baltistan.
