Yesterday was International Teachers’ Day, and I would like to honour the patriotic men and women who wake up early every morning to dispense knowledge to the people we describe as the “leaders of tomorrow”. Teachers are often the unsung protagonists of society, and it is fitting that they be celebrated on a day like today.
The theme of this year’s annual celebration is “Empowering Teachers, Building Sustainable Communities.” It is a sensible theme because it follows that the net effect of a large group of empowered (and appreciated) educators is an educated society that is able to derive innovative and sustainable solutions to the problems it faces.
If you have ever taught before, as I have, you know that teaching is not nearly the easiest profession. And yes, you nearly need to be superhuman to be a successful teacher. Take a nursery school teacher who, at the beginning of the first term of school, receives a group of thirty unrefined children, very noisy, easily agitated, and so energetic they can drive the teacher up the wall with the mere unsettledness of their nature. In the same group, there are kids whose thoughts cannot be guessed because they are closed up and lackadaisical in everything they do. But by the end of the term, the teacher has tamed the wild kids and woken up the sleepy ones. I think it takes patience and a true passion for the work of grooming the children, not to mention wisdom to know when to employ a firm hand.
In spite of all the good things we can say about teachers, I have a problem with the teaching fraternity. Everybody has heard everybody else say “teaching is a calling; not a profession.” I agree. But I think there is more to it than being called to teach. Here are my thoughts on…
HOW A TEACHER SHOULD BE
A Teacher Should Know His/Her Stuff
This is no insult. I stand to be corrected, but I truly do not see how an individual who was never good at English can teach English well. I know way too many teachers of English that spell ‘Hi’ as ‘Hai’. And if your name is ‘Michael’, you probably remember a teacher who always spelled your name as ‘Micheal’. And there might be a teacher reading this right now that thinks I should have written ‘spelt’ instead of ‘spelled’. (Side note: I am partially excused if I mix up past tense and past participle because I am not a teacher of English.)
A Teacher Should Be Creative
Every teacher training course has an element of creativity in it. Teachers are trained how to make lessons interesting and lively for their pupils. However, dynamism is required to achieve an effective level of creativity in the classroom. The teacher should be able to tell quite quickly in the term which teaching methods will work best, and should be able to apply a level of spontaneity even in a lesson.
A Teacher Should Let Pupils Have Fun
I personally have never enjoyed sitting in a class where I do not get to have a couple of good laughs. To me, an overly-strict teacher was just a spoilsport who ruined the entire learning experience for me. Yes, some pupils get better grades when lorded over constantly in order to keep them concentrating. Still, I think it is necessary to engage pupils in a way that makes it fun for them to be in class.
A Teacher Should Be A Life Coach
A chemistry teacher is paid to teach chemistry. But by virtue of being someone in direct contact with children, the teacher needs to bear in mind that the words that he or she speaks in or outside the chemistry lab have the potential to make or break a pupil. They have the potential to make a pupil realise that he or she can make it in life regardless of challenges or make him or her give up at the first appearance of a difficulty.
A teacher should therefore equip pupils with skills to survive in the vicious jungle called ‘after high school’. And these skills do not just pertain to managing peer pressure and keeping away from negative vices, but they involve teaching pupils who to use their initiative. Teachers should help pupils learn that they can make something out of their lives even before they get employed. Teachers should teach pupils how to think outside the proverbial box. Teachers should teach pupils how to adapt to ever-changing environments while coaching them to stay focused on well-defined and meaningful goals.
BUT IN THE TEACHERS’ DEFENCE…
I believe the majority of teachers do genuinely want to impart knowledge, but we have to face a couple of facts:
An Unfriendly Job Market
It is said that there are not enough teachers in Zambia. Well, I do not know the statistics, but I have met a lot of people who have decided to venture into teaching simply because the employment of their choice has been hard to come by. It is unfortunate, but it is happening. Do not get me wrong, even my first formal job was a teaching one. But even if teaching is not one’s true passion, a teacher should quickly realise that he or she has a group of people to inspire. The teaching job should be embraced and made the best of.
With patience which has admittedly always been in short supply, it was difficult for me to adapt to teaching noisy 7-year-old kids. But I had to do it, and do it well. I had to find a way of leaving in impact in their lives. I may have or I may not have. I guess it remains to be seen. Still, I will flatter myself by saying that a couple of sobs from both pupils and nuns may have meant my four years of teaching were generally well spent.
To this end, the job market must be such that people get the job opportunities they seek so that only truly called teachers can teach. Yes, of course it sounds harsh. But the same way you do not want someone like me – who is more interested in computers than anything else – to be found carrying out open-heart surgery, we need to safeguard the teaching fraternity from those who are not interested in the future of the kids they teach.
Limited Exposure
Teachers are encouraged to keep abreast with the latest in educational developments. I am pretty sure most of them strive to do that. But in Zambia, technology though quite pervasive now, has not yet reached the level that would allow easy access to information at that rate required by the education sector. Part of empowering teachers should be allowing them to easily access resources that can help them teach better.
This problem is twofold, but generally stems from inertia:
- Some teachers are comfortable with the knowledge they have. So they do not push themselves to learn more in their subject areas, let alone learn new methods of teaching their subjects.
- Decision-makers are often not willing to invest in technology that would improve education delivery. There are too many schools and colleges in Zambia that do not know that there is a better way to do what they do. And when they are told about better ways of managing their schools, particularly the education delivery aspect, they have reservations.
But you cannot blame teachers and schools only. Technology and the Internet in Zambia are relatively very expensive when compared to other countries in the region.
Bigger technological investments need to be made in education so that educators can see how beneficial technology is to the sector. With price reduction on technology implementations, and a greater appreciation of what technology can do for the education sector, more schools may embrace the need to implement cutting-edge technology to improve education delivery. Coupled with teachers, who really want the best for the pupils they teach, we may have a better educated society.
