The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth – Daniel Irvin Rather, an American journalist and broadcaster.
The mind is caged and limited in exploitation if it serves the ignorance embedded in illiteracy. The pages of life are read by open minds to improve humanity. Learning is a continuum; moving from generation to generation with an improved version, just to offer desired outcomes. Education is as old as its existence, though in various patterns and shades. Putting expectations in vague will make the education suffer futility in the hands of the administrators of teaching and learning. Instructors come with different nomenclatures but their duties are intact. Teachers are the focal point of literacy, it won’t be fair to put them in the back seat.
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One of the major errors committed by policymakers is to exempt the role of teachers in the improvement of curriculum designs and subject the task to laymen in the field. The problems have become generational as no significant touches have come from these groups of intellectuals in the architecture of education. The implementation aspect of the curriculum takes serious discussion as the task is saddled on teachers to ensure full compliance to what is purportedly alien to them. Armchair administrators take the plans to the doorsteps of learners hoping the execution will be done by the facilitators. Instructing and teaching will be cumbersome with inexperienced teachers.
Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Accounting and other fields of relevance won’t come to be without the process of learning. This process is not adopted by illiteracy but by tutelage. The tutor takes the front seat to impact knowledge, an understanding acquired with experience and delivered with a commitment to humanity. Between the stakeholders and the learners, the teacher goes in between to arrive at the desired destination-bringing out professionalism. It is saddening to realise that admissions into universities and colleges of education to study education gets low patronage. The reason is just that becoming a teacher takes less dignity in the sight of the policymakers in Nigeria and so may not be regarded as a significant field of study.
A fair share of the Nobel virus in our education sector didn’t take its toll without a bitter taste. To resuscitate the leftovers, would require special intervention from international synergy. We should accept that education won’t be what it used to be. Classrooms won’t be just the four walls of a room. Boards for writing may not hang on the wall. Teachers may not necessarily have physical contact with learners before they impact knowledge. Textbooks and other educational materials may not be hard prints. The school curriculum will change to fit the new normal.
The learner’s attitude towards learning should be reviewed with adequate attention and an appropriate panacea. The lockdown in Nigeria took a number of students away from the classrooms as well as disrupting learning. Some states like Lagos state intervened swiftly but not without its shortcomings. Providing internet-enabled devices to some students in Senior High Schools but these children do not have parents who could efficiently assist in the operation of these devices while at home in many cases. Other programmes by the state government considered the training of the handlers of these learners, teachers and other stakeholders of education.
Eko digital takes the front burner of digitalisation of education in Lagos State. The Lagos State Ministry of Education provides a digital approach to learning as learners adopt the “new normal”. Presumably, other states will take a leaf from this innovation. Relevant resources have been deployed to bring this to a brilliant commencement: engaging teachers with supportive guidelines towards the innovation of a robust education equipped with technology. Advancement in technology is the efficient way to handle this era of social distancing. Soft copies of materials that range from notes of lessons to statutory records of learners have been helpful in this timely migration.
The welfare of teachers should be revitalised in this era as it takes more strength and commitment to be a good and fruitful teacher. Not in numbers of years in service but in remuneration befitting the role of a role model in the society. This will breed wellness that can sprout into enthusiastic delivery of content.
It will be sacrilegious to dehumanise teachers in society, not even from parents, nor from governments. We have had cases of students’ gang up to beat their teachers, there are cases of government owing salaries or some slashing the take-home of teachers. The population of teachers shouldn’t outgrow the budget of a government, they are the bedrock of the economy. To reduce the number of children dropping out of schools, increase the numbers of professional teachers in society. Whether in private or public schools, teachers are noble. They are loco parentis, assuming the roles of parents in areas of discipline and morals for the learners to model.
By Olusegun Fashakin. The seasoned educator can be reached via [email protected]
