In Sindh, there is no concept of preserving a lifetime of educational wisdom in the education sector. Many teachers retire without submitting a fact report, and this is the reason the Education Department, Government of Sindh, missed all the learning that teachers went through. As resources were invested in these teachers, the government was unable to gain from it, and this lack of practice is the reason we are backward and do not document such knowledge and wisdom. As teachers retire at 60, the department misses the 60 years of learning experience. If we document it properly for every teacher, we can build a strong education strategy in light of their shared recommendations.
Other countries preserve each insight for the growth and betterment of their education systems. They implement them in textbooks, introduce new things in classrooms, enhance learning practices, and even improve examinations. They rely on the feedback from the lived experiences of teachers who dedicate decades of their lives to shaping future generations. A teacher’s journey is filled with successes and failures, innovations and challenges, and invaluable lessons that rarely find their way into official records.
The time now is of competition, and the addition of every change will benefit the system. The Sindh government needs to implement a requirement that every retiring teacher should submit a reflective “Life Journey Report”— an account of their professional experiences, innovations, milestones achieved by schools and students, and practical advice for future generations. Such documentation should not only serve as a tribute to their lifelong service but also as a guiding resource for education officers, policymakers, and young teachers. The Government of Sindh must create a systematic mechanism to capture and document this knowledge, and integrate it into policy, school management, teacher training, and district-level education planning to ensure continuous improvements on a routine basis.
The Government of Sindh should prioritize this reform by issuing a notification making it mandatory for retiring teachers to submit their life journey report. The DEO office should be responsible for facilitating the process, while the Education Department should develop technical guidelines and ensure integration into policy
Other countries learn from invested resources; they observe each child, family, and school. In our context, teachers are the only ones who truly know how communities evolve, how government reforms succeed or fail, and how new teaching methods work in practice. They develop coping strategies for limited resources, find innovative ways to engage students, and build networks of trust with parents.
Unfortunately, much of this knowledge remains undocumented. When a teacher retires, their wisdom, knowledge, and worth retires with them. In many cases, the school and education system lose not only a professional but also a local historian who carries the memory of the community’s struggles and successes in education.
If we document teachers’ learning systematically, we can create life-based case studies of school successes and failures. We can highlight innovative practices developed in local contexts and replicate them in school management, classrooms, and training materials, while also using them to reform policies on a day-to-day basis.
The Government of Sindh should design a structured template for retiring teachers to submit their journey. This template could include the following sections: Personal and Professional Journey, Years of Service, Schools Taught In, Subjects Taught, Key Challenges Faced (resources, infrastructure, dropout, cultural barriers), and Personal Strategies for Overcoming Difficulties.
For documenting student learning, the successes and stories of students who excelled in education and careers must be recorded, including an analysis of the factors that contributed to their success (such as family support, scholarships, or teacher encouragement). Retired teachers should also submit their recommendations on how to replicate such success for other students.
Teaching and Academic Reflections can be another valuable component. Retired teachers can submit their feedback on curriculum relevance, suggestions for improving classroom environments, and their experiences with training programmes along with recommendations on how these programmes can be improved.
As of now, we are facing many management and administration issues, especially strikes, lack of capacity, and weak ownership among teachers. Retired teachers can provide suggestions based on their experiences with Headmasters, Clerks, TEOs (Taluka Education Officers), and DEOs (District Education Officers), along with advice on how to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and improve efficiency.
For addressing Community and achieving Out-of-School Children mitigation, we need to implement life-based techniques to overcome this long-standing issue. Retired teachers can provide valuable suggestions through their experiences with dropouts and the strategies that worked to bring them back for successful re-enrollment.
We have always missed Folk Knowledge— special traditional stories, sayings, and community practices that helped in teaching and discipline. Each teacher carries thousands of such learnings, which can supplement and complement the entire education system of Sindh.
As the Sindh government moves toward institutionalizing the process in a smart way, the Education Department should ensure the following, Two years before retirement, teachers receive official letters informing them of their responsibility to document their journey. DEO offices provide facilitation and guidance to help teachers in writing reflective reports.
For Submission, Verification, and Execution, teachers should submit their reports to the DEO office. A technical team will review the reports, extract best practices, and verify success stories. Once reviewed, a No Objection Letter (NOC) confirming the submission of the Life Journey Report should be forwarded as part of the retirement plan. Since only a few teachers retire each month from each district, the DEO office can easily review the submitted reports within the due timeline. These reports should also be highlighted during farewell ceremonies through presentations, showcasing what each teacher has contributed and the potential benefits their experiences can bring to the future of education in the same area.
After the submission and verification process at the district level, Sindh Province can move toward policy integration. Selected insights should be published in annual district-level education reports, on official websites, and across platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Best practices should also be incorporated into teacher training manuals, provincial education strategies, and district education plans. All reports should be digitized and stored in a central Sindh Education Digital Archive, while important lessons should be published in hard copy for schools and libraries.
Teachers who submit high-quality reports should be recognized publicly. Schools should host farewell events where teachers share their journeys with students and colleagues.
We also need to learn from other countries, many of which have created systems to capture teachers’ wisdom. In Japan, retired teachers are re-engaged as mentors for new teachers, and their experiences are published in educational journals. In Finland, teacher training institutions invite retired teachers to share real-life classroom case studies with trainee teachers. In our neighboring country India, some states organize “Guru Vandan” programmes where retiring teachers document their journeys, focusing on community engagement and innovative practices. In the United Kingdom, retired teachers contribute to educational think tanks and policy development, ensuring that grassroots insights inform systemic reforms.
Sindh can adapt these global practices by creating a Teacher Wisdom Bank, where all reports are stored, reviewed, and utilized for continuous policy improvement. By institutionalizing the collection of retiring teachers’ journeys, the Sindh Education Department can benefit in multiple ways. It will be able to preserve generational wisdom that would otherwise disappear with the passing of each teacher. These insights can enrich teacher training, bringing real-life case studies into the learning process of new educators. Schools can strengthen their management practices by drawing on practical experiences shared by those who have resolved challenges for decades. Policymakers will benefit from evidence-based reforms, grounded in lessons from the field rather than abstract theory. Most importantly, this practice will motivate current teachers, reassuring them that their struggles, innovations, and lifelong efforts will not go unnoticed but will instead become a valued part of Sindh’s educational legacy.
The Government of Sindh should prioritize this reform by issuing a notification making it mandatory for retiring teachers to submit their life journey report. The DEO office should be responsible for facilitating the process, while the Education Department should develop technical guidelines and ensure integration into policy.
