Are you called to teach?

Quality education is recognised universally as the key to accelerated national development and the teacher is the pivot around which it revolves.

The importance of the teacher manifests to a very large extent in what the pupil becomes in future. At a congregation recently in one of the public universities, the overall best student showed gratitude to some of his teachers for assisting to bring out the best in him to the extent that one of them even bought the university application forms for him.

The resounding applause for the teacher was a clear indication of how such actions by teachers were appreciated by the larger public.

In the past, such teachers were common and the profession was held in very high esteem. People made conscious efforts to train to become teachers. Teaching was seen as a vocation and people took pride in being teachers.

Extra class menace

In those days, teachers organised extra classes to bring weak students/pupils to the level of the class and to prepare their students for external examinations at no cost to parents. But what do we see now? Different types of extra classes; Super extra, extra classes and “studies” with a greater focus on supplementing the income of teachers or making them rich rather than helping students.

Sadly in some schools, even toddlers are not spared the extra classes menace.

No one should be against teachers gaining extra income, for after all, teachers do not buy from a different market that other professionals patronise. The teacher’s reward should no longer be in heaven.

The challenge, however, is that this seems to be the main focus of some teachers with others additionally devoting more time to selling all sorts of stuff to the children at the expense of their core duty which is teaching and to the detriment of pupils.

Attracting the best

Increasingly, it appears teaching as a profession is becoming an avenue for the academically weak so that when other doors are shut in their face, they then embrace the teaching profession with both hands. Some of them who are so set in their ways, continue to use the same old methods which do not bring results and do not upgrade themselves in anyway.

The recent case of teachers in Nigeria who could not pass the examinations that had been set for the students they taught comes to mind. This is not acceptable and we should not wait for this situation to arrive at our doorsteps if it is not already here. The kind of English language we hear some teachers speak when they are interviewed in the media is so embarrassing and when you hear pupils opting to speak a local language when being interviewed in English, you need no prophet to tell you that all is not well.

The rural area situation

Another issue of concern is how some teachers in the rural areas, who are not able to make much from compulsory extra classes because of the economic situation of parents there, take to farming to supplement their incomes. That is a good idea but the problem is the use of their pupils/students as their farm hands, turning the children into beasts of burden at the expense of class work. In the end, the students /pupils suffer during exams, since they have to take the same examinations that those in the cities take.

Some teachers also come to class perpetually charged on alcohol and the only thing they are well acknowledged for is their caning prowess! What becomes of pupils who, through no fault of theirs, find themselves in the class of such a teacher?

Most pupils are known to have dropped out of school or played truant because of such teachers.

We are seeing more cases of mercenary teachers impregnating female teenage students and cases where teachers have sodomised pupils/students. There seems to be many dubious characters infiltrating the classrooms with ease as teachers and this situation calls for a more serious vetting of teachers by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education since it looks like not everyone is cut to be a teacher. What happened to the talk about licensing teachers?

Role of parents

Parents too have a critical role to play in bringing out the best in the teachers. They must make the effort to get to know their children’s teachers better so that any suspicious move could be nipped in the bud.

Parents must show more interest in what happens in class and not only be in a hurry to drop off their children in school and run off to work.

Religious/missionary schools

It is in the light of this disturbing trend that I think, perhaps, the time to consider returning religious/missionary schools to the religious bodies may be now.

At least the churches could help in identifying straight teachers in their schools and lessen the burden on the GES.

In the midst of the challenges, it is important to note that we still have competent and dedicated teachers who constitute the majority.

To these fine teachers, I doff my hat to you for your hard work in bringing out the best in children and preparing them for the future under very challenging conditions.

But for those who are killing our children softly, I suggest that we seriously chart a path that will make it difficult for them to continue to do so.

Writer’s E-mail:

doreen.hammond@graphic.com.gh, aamakai@rocketmail.com