Abstract:

This study was designed to explore the extent to which primary school students’ performance improved because of the continuous professional development program. Moreover, to take a holistic and in-depth picture of the students’ achievement the study also investigated the factors that affect students’ performance and explored measures to improve the performance. To address the first objective secondary data of 5th-grade students’ annual examination achievement score of five years (2011-12 to 2015-16) was used. The second objective was addressed through semi-structured interviews of 32 primary school teachers. Secondary data has been analyzed by calculating mean and qualitative data has been analyzed through content analysis. The study is descriptive and exploratory. The overall achievement of the students in all subjects remained poor except Islamiyat. Students got the highest marks (very good level) in Islamyat and lowest marks (fair level) in the subject of science. The students’ achievement score in the subjects of English, Urdu, and Mathematics was also a fair level but it was slightly better than Science. It can be inferred from these findings that mentors did not perform their responsibilities appropriately under the CPD framework to enhance students’ learning. Moreover, it is found that the major reasons for students’ undesirable performance are multi-grade teaching, non-cooperation of parents, poverty, absenteeism, and non-availability of textbooks on time. Data suggests that there is a need to appoint qualified teachers, make sure the availability of finance to purchase teaching/learning material, control the students’ absenteeism, and make sure parents and community involvement to improve students’ performance.

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