THAT TEACHER AND 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOMS
We are now in a position to weigh the status of teaching, despite a lack of simple rules for guidance. Our postulates preclude the designation of teaching as a profession by intrinsic right, simply because it is teaching. Because we take paychecks for it or because it is not a trade, it is not therefore a profession.
The first thing that you must know about teaching as a profession is that teaching is about inspiring and motivating students to realize and exceed their potentials. The greatest teachers of all time have devoted their lives to inspiring and empowering their students to achieve great things and be good human beings.
TEACHING IS UNIQUE
How is a teaching profession different from other professions?
The teaching profession is different from all other professions because:-
1- It is a profession of creating sparkle not burning or extinguishing.
2- In other professions responsibility is to complete a task, but in teaching creating task complete or clone of self.
3- In teaching, there is an eternal satisfaction of the ability to do something for a future world.
4- In this profession there are scopes for the teacher for reformation of social, cultural, and economical state.
5- In most other professions the scope of contribution is limited but in teaching…..
6- If a manager or a clerk does any mistake it will affect a person or a limited environment, but a mistake done by a teacher may affect the whole human race. For example, terrorism is the result of wrong teaching.
A teaching job is a job of high responsibility. Only well aware and responsible people should come to this profession.
DESPITE ALL THESE...?
Despite all the above testimonials and professional popular opinions, many cannot consider teaching as a derivable utility of the century, in Nigeria. Great scholars have successfully put down their thoughts and arguments to brainstorm the challenges facing the profession in Nigeria. There are thousands of literary submissions in trying to buttress the profession but it avails its originality, people often pointed a one-sided finger at accusations on Teacher whenever there is a slight glitch in his work, but the annoying thing nobody appreciates any teacher whenever there is a victory of performance.
Another issue to be discussed is the knowledge of ICT and its contribution to resharpening the ways of instructions in our education system.
I know a principal of a school, he was among the promoted chaps by the recently relieved Commissioner of education, the guy met fully equipped Computer pool in his school, with a somewhat substantial number of instructors to at least teaching and guide the SS students how to operate the device, learn basics of computer operation and even to have an Outlook guide on the JAMB CBT.
Do you know that the Oga Principal said, "to hell with all that", he scrapped the subject from the school, closed down the pool, and changed the teachers to teach other subjects.
Among the factors that contribute to a woeful failure in any CBT examination is lack of computer literacy, believe me, a great percentage of Basic schools, post-basic and SS teachers do not know how to use computers in this 21st century. Talkless of putting their students through to learn and adapt the changes and assimilates themselves to the computer age.
I was discussing with some of them recently that we are facilitating for distribution of laptops to teachers, on a soft loan basis, where the government can subsidize the price for each teacher to own a computer. So many of them I've spoken to, told me, they'll sell up the device and spend the money on something, they don't care to know how important is the device to them and their classrooms activities.
In BAUCHI STATE for example, can we beat our chest to say that all the over 200 senior secondary schools in the State under the Ministry of education have a standard Sciences laboratory and Computer lab? Well equipped and World standard? The answer is Capital NO.
For decades we have been malignant to the Sector, every GOVERNOR, every Commissioner will be giving out a deceptive statement about the falling standard of education, but they'll end up adding salts to the various wounds that keep killing the Sector.
If the Senior public Secondary Schools cannot have a better of all these means of modern instructions facilities and we expect the teachers to improvise magic and make students good is not tenable, how do we expect a better outcome from the primary and post-basic Schools that are not connected with modernization? Just take a tour of our public schools both Primary and Secondary Schools you'll understand that we have a very long voyage to get out of the 19th century of the education system.
Numerous factors, numerous problems, and numerous unattainable ways to correct them. Public Schools are totally not functioning properly and in the right direction, they lack everything to function as schools, the teachers too need additional instructions through rigorous training and retraining, there must room for capacity building to fully make a teacher a professional, having an NCE and or Degree and it's equivalent does not make a person a Better instructor/tutor. Professional teachers go through years of attending seminars, conferences, and workshops on capacity building to learn better methodologies.
How do we elevate the qualifications of our teachers to be standard and adapt to the 21st-century teaching profession? Is by having a standard (ERC) education resource center. It's through the center that the government will make sure every teacher receives a better method to teach. In BAUCHI STATE, for example, our ERC is relatively dead, nothing there, even the building has become a decomposing building ready to collapse. The Center is more of a punishment place for posting to settle a score in the Ministry. Numerous factors numerous problems.
Dr. Shehu Zailani of College of Agriculture, Bauchi State, commented under one of my Facebook posts. "...Issue of computer literacy is not restricted to only secondary schools but even in some tertiary institutions, you will be surprised to find some pockets of academic staff including HODs who don't know how to run simple Microsoft excel and therefore could not compute or guide their staff to enter their student's semester results using the computer.
The most annoying and disgusting thing is that we were trained by NCC severally on the basics of computer operations issued certificates and laptops free of charge. But then some of us still engage the non-teaching staff to help them In computing student's semester results. This our attitudes end up leading to widespread and unending examination results racketeering.
Our problems in the educational sector of the state need a call for a summit so that the like minds of me and you and all interested on the matter would make presentations of what we know about the situation for brainstorming on a possible solution or measures".
The problems are just unbearable and unending, how do we correct the anomalies? Can we now recommend a discurse for a possible Polish of the Sector?
The Emerging challenges as discussed in several presentations, Poor Teachers' Salary Structure and Other Remunerations, Deteriorating condition of resources allocation for enhancing Teaching-Learning process, Differential Categorization of Teachers, Discriminative Political Interference and Low Degree of Autonomy is Accorded. These are considered to be at forefront of the issue of the bedevelling teaching profession in 21st-century classrooms. ICT has transformed teaching and learning processes from being highly teacher-dominated to student-centered, and that this transformation will result in increased learning gains for students, creating and allowing for opportunities for learners to develop their creativity, problem-solving abilities, information.
UNPROMISING SUBEB
The unpromising SUBEB is another angle for the failures in primary education. My third submission on this topic will focus on the commission that is saddled with the responsibility of repositioning Basic (primary) education. The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) was formally established on 7th October 2004. Programs and initiatives for early childhood care and education, Six-year Primary Education, and three (3) years of Junior Secondary Education.
That was after some modifications were made on defunct NPEC National Primary Education Commission as well as the 1999 Universal Basic Education Act due to recorded failure to Promote primary education in Nigeria. The reinvigorated UBEC was established by the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education and Other Related Matters Act of 2004 with a mandate to formulate policy guidelines for the successful operation of the Universal Basic Education Program, prescribe the minimum standards for basic education.
There are two (2) main categories of funds that SUBEBs access from UBEC: Conditional Grants: These require States to provide 50% of the fund (Counterpart fund) to get additional 50% Matching Grants from UBEC for utilization at a given ratio on ECCE, Primary, and Junior Secondary School Education levels.
All the failures, the falling standard of the education system at Primary and Junior Secondary School level started from the matching grants the States are paying as counterpart funds. Corruption and what have you has made the States Chief Executives to subvert the objectivity of the Boards under the States to be doing something else, agreed, the grants could be said are not under the direct control of the Governors but believe me, the Board is 100% being controlled by the governors in their States. From the moment a governor was mandated to appoints the SUBEB Board, the politico-interest comes in and that's what is hindering performance in that level of education. The system is hijacked from its aims meanwhile defeating the objectives upon which it was created initially.
Today, every one of us can testify that SUBEBS is a cesspool a mere sump of corruption where allegations upon allegations are recorded. The billions of Naira being pump into their accounts were meant for infrastructures development, supplies of instructional Materials, as well as teachers' training to be better than they were recruited. Can we beat our chest to depend on the expenditures especially in Teacher training and retraining? Apart from petty workshops being organized by donor agencies which participation is based on acquaintances and godfatherism does the board set aside funds for Universal training of the teachers under SUBEBS? many teachers if ask this question of whether they had ever attended any seminar, conference or workshops either locally or internationally to broaden their scope on new methods of teaching, the great majority will reply to your question as "NO".
The substantial number of primary school tutors, as well as junior secondary School teachers, are unqualified or half baked in the sense of motivation and qualifications to teach, many are recruited based on Political affiliations, being candidates of many Political gladiators to just convert redundancy among our graduates. A great number of them are products of Sandwich Colleges of Education that are today being rampantly created to award certificates in a single line of discipline, these colleges of education contributed much to these failures we are talking about, graduating subconscious mind to train a clean slate. Without a good check and balance, the Ministry of education responsible for moderating the Colleges will look the other way because of Political inclinations and corruption.
SUBEB are mere puppets of the governor, the board will be headed by either GOVERNOR'S brother, uncle, friend, or inlaw for the executive to have full control of the Board will be filled with errands Political associates as payback to their roles in election. That's how Politicians turns SUBEB into mere conduits of contract award to crannies, family and friends this is a case of every State in Nigeria. SUBEB is now a contract awarding board instead of a medium to better the Basic and post-basic education.
The intriguing scenario on all these is that parents will never question this, nobody cares to know how much is being expended on the extent of achievements in this sector. Teachers under SUBEB only enjoy a courtesy of privileges based on connection, many workshops being organized by donors agencies are not being participated by the supposed teachers, directors as well as principal Officers circumvent the process and appoints themselves to participate because of the money involves, everyone is after the allowances being paid as workshop, seminar or conference allowances. Hence the reason for circumventing the real participants to be replaced with principal Officers and godsons of the Board that's the practices across the States. A solution to this is for the NASS to repeal the UBEC/SUBEB Act, to remove the power of appointment of the Board from the hands of the State Governors, revise the Act to accommodate more Teachers' participation under the funding in training and in-service training. Considering more of teachers' welfare as ways of motivation to make the changes to achieve the aims and objective of the Universal Basic Education in Nigeria.
ahmad.msalihu22@gmail.com.
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