Paper short abstract:

Importance of quality primary education in a country's socio-economic development can not be underestimated. In this context, Good human resource in the form of qualified teachers having requisite training and skills is a way forward.

Paper long abstract:

The quality of primary education in Pakistan has been questionable since long time. Consistent government failures in the provision of quality primary education had paved the way for private sector to larger extent and NGOs to some extent to fill the gap. The literature highlights, among many others, the quality of human resource as the main culprit. This paper aims to find out the impact of teacher's training on the efficiency of primary education provided by the public, private and non-governmental sector. A primary survey is being conducted from 42 public, private and non -governmental schools in the Abbottabad region of Khyber Pakhtunkhaw Province of Pakistan through a standardized, validated and reliable questionnaire. By employing data envelopment analysis, our results show that on average, private schools perform better than the public and NGO schools. Further, Tobit regression analysis are performed to investigate the impact of teacher's training on the efficiency of primary schools controlling for other school related factors Surprisingly, our results suggest that teachers training and emphasis on attendance do not contribute to students' performance. Therefore, policy makers should focus on qualitative aspects of teachers through better training and behaviors.And the evaluation of teacher's training should be linked to the student's performance at schools. Further, the regulators should provide more training to the teachers of public sector urdu-medium (native language) schools.