This study was conducted to describe the conceptions and difficulties of Junior High School teachers and to explore their issues and challenges on the conduct of action research. A combination of quantitative and qualitative types of research was utilized in the study involving 60 teachers in the Junior High School department. The results reveal that action research is a valuable tool for teachers to improve teaching and learning process, to increase pedagogical and instructional knowledge, and to positively impact students’ learning. Furthermore, teachers find difficulties in the conduct of action research especially along literature search, presentation and publication of results, and data collection. Finally, four major themes emerged as the major issues and challenges of teachers in the conduct of action research which are additional workload and burden in the part of the teacher, wri ting anxiety, lack of time, and inadequate knowledge in the conduct of action research. As an offshoot of the study, an intervention program was developed to develop research skills and to improve the research productivity of teachers in the junior high school department.

Communication is the process of conveying or transmitting information. It is a channel used to convey messages to affect the reactions of the employees, to make the information fruitful, get feedback and accomplish the objectives. Communication skill is the ability, potential, or caliber to transmit and share information in an effective manner. Communication skills may be among the contributory factors to equip the educational managers with such capabilities that they may evolve an effective quality management system, by establishing good communication channels, for sustained success of educational enterprise. The nature of the study is descriptive; therefore, survey method was used. The population comprised of the managers of educational enterprise in Pakistan. Managers from 4 educational organizations at Islamabad were chosen as the sample of the study. The simple random sample technique was used and 40 managers were randomly selected from each enterprise comprising of total sample of 160 managers. Questionnaire, comprising 25 close ended questions, was the instrument for data collection. The collected data were analyzed through mean, percentage, standard deviation and chi-square. Conclusion were drawn out that educational managers possess communication skills to a great extent and that communication skills play a vital role in the management system for sustained success of educational enterprise. Recommendations have also been put forward which may help the educational managers to further improve their communication skills and manage the educational enterprise effectively.

Pakistan is a developing country where a large portion of the population is poor and illiterate. Education is the basic ingredient of socioeconomic development and the most effective and efficient mean of poverty alleviation. The developed countries succeeded to alleviate poverty by mean of an effective education system. The main objective of this paper was to study the poverty alleviation efforts in Pakistan with respect to education. This study reviewed poverty alleviation documents. It was an effort to look deeper into the education system of Pakistan to sought out ways to address the challenges of prevailing poverty in Pakistan. It is an effort to explore the impact of education on poverty. It was found that the poverty alleviation papers and policies were documented and presented ideally but were not implemented properly, the education system was not linked with poverty alleviation strategies. The students were prepared for theoretical and white-collar jobs which were not available for graduates of education system. The education system of Pakistan has not succeeded to meet the job market demands. The technical and vocational education was not given due attention. It is recommended to revisit the education and poverty alleviation policies to meet the challenge of poverty and to uplift the economic status of Pakistan. Key words: Poverty alleviation, technical and vocational education, formal education, poverty line, human capital, human resource, economic development.

The current study was conducted to find out the effect of parental communication, parental emotional support, classroom security, and teachers’ motivation on Big five factors of personality of secondary school students. From the population of grade 10 students, a sample of 1438 was randomly selected from three districts viz. Mansehra, Haripur, and Abbotabad of Hazara Division. Stratified random sampling technique was used in the selection of sample of students. Two questionnaires for probing the responses from students were developed. The first questionnaire comprised of two factors viz. parental communication and parental emotional support while the second questionnaire consisted of two factors viz. classroom security and teachers’ motivation. The questionnaires were validated as a result of expert opinion. The Cronbach reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.75, which was calculated from data collected through pilot study conducted on 100 students. The Cronbach reliability coefficient of the instrument of classroom security and teachers’ motivation was 0.70. Results indicated that Parental emotional support and classroom security profoundly positively affected the agreeableness factor of personality while teachers’ motivation negatively affected agreeableness. Parental communication and teachers’ motivation positively affected extraversion while classroom security negatively affected extraversion. Parental emotional support and classroom security developed conscientiousness, parental emotional support, classroom security, and teachers’ motivation reduces neurotic tendencies. Similarly Classroom security decreases openness while parental emotional support and communication increases openness. It is concluded that parental communication, parental emotional support, classroom security, and teachers’ motivation affects certain factors of personality of the students. Keywords: Big Five Factors of personality, classroom security, Parental Emotional support, Motivation, parental communication