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ormance’ how about the other side ‘qualitative performance’? There is a need to think about the quality of education which can help people to cope with developmental challenges happen over time.

Experiences and researches shows the quality of education has been deteriorating over time. Disparities among and within the regions and districts has been increased in the recent years. Overcrowded classes, high PTRs, inadequate accommodations for the teachers, shortage of qualified teachers especially in remote rural areas has been witnessed for sometimes now. The 1995 Education and Training Policy “teachers in public schools have experienced low and irregular salary payments, lack of proper housing, inadequate teaching facilities, low status and limited opportunities for professional development.”(1995:31).

Nevertheless, the UNESCO GMR Report “agrees and strongly argues that the most important determinant of educational quality is the teacher.” (2009:15) Therefore, if is to improve the quality of education, first we have to improve the quality of teaching force. Teacher plays a prime role to ensure teaching and learning process meet the desirable outcomes; since they’re source of knowledge, skills, wisdom, appropriate orientation and role models for the students. According to Chung in his book “Education and Development” argued that, “if for one reason or the other, teachers’ qualifications are inadequate and if his morale is low, education is doomed to failure to that extent regardless of the abundance ... of other supporting factors.”(2010:163). The achievements of students in the class are determined by the way the teacher is performing his/her obligation in and outside the classroom.

Additionally, the PEDP program did not give much attention to the development of professional teaching skills (Komba & Nkumbi, 2008). The situation is more critical still as far as the teachers working in rural areas, where statistics shows the ratio of pupil to qualified teacher range from above 100 pupils to 1 teacher for rural primary schools to fewer than 35 pupils to one teacher for urban schools (URT/UNESCO, 2012). This implies that the workload is very heavy to some teachers who work in remote areas and eventually affecting their motivation to undertake their duties effectively. This threatened the quality of primary education since the sharp increase of extra children caused over-crowded classes, under-staffing in the schools as well as insufficient learning materials.

To address this problem the government created a crash teaching program conducted between 2003 and 2007 to meet the shortage of teaching staff in primary schools. So, instead of a two years training course for grade IIIA teachers, they had to study for only one year and the second year to complete their studies in their working places. This program led to produce under-qualified teachers who lacked some pedagogical skills to teach pupils in primary school.

In a nutshell, education is the central point to development and a key on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But also it is one of the most powerful weapons to fight against poverty and reducing inequality among people in the society. It lays foundation for a country to attain sustainable socio-economic development. In this regard, quality education is very important for developing countries to realize rapid economic growth. But, a num