Need To Reaffirm Values Of Teaching

NEWS COMMENTARY ON REAFFIRMING THE VALUE OF TEACHING TO BECOME FIRST CHOICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Teachers, time immemorial, have been at the heart of the human capital for national development by providing quality education to children, facilitating students’ learning, ensuring they thrive academically to fulfil their potential and find meaningful careers. They also guide students to become responsible citizens of the country. Teaching is therefore referred to as a noble profession across the world. But in Ghana, it is the exact opposite. Teachers are unfortunately the least recognized among nobles. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO in partnership with UNICEF, UNDP, the International Labour Organization, and Education International, annually on 5th October since 1994, commemorates World Teachers’ Day. The event provides the platform to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, to take stock of achievements, and to address some of the issues central for attracting and keeping the brightest minds and young talents in the profession. This year’s event is on the theme: “Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession”.

In 2014, UNESCO recommended in its Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2013/2014 that recruiting and retaining good teachers and training them should be made a priority to enhance the quality of education. Ghana’s stride to sustain and enhance its lower-middle-class status is faltering because it has failed to identify critical importance of reaffirming the value of the teaching mission as-well-as ask questions about the kind of teachers required and what it needs to do to produce teachers of the highest quality. As a saying goes: “the Standard of education of a country cannot be higher than the quality of its teachers.” The nation has been lackadaisical in making teaching a profession of first choice for young people. This compels many young people to only attempt teacher training institutions after they have failed elsewhere. This raises a question mark as to the kind of teachers being trained. Children who are the future of our nation should be educated by the best teachers and we must be prepared to guarantee that every teacher standing in front of a group of children understands the standards expected of them and how to raise achievement levels in schools. To this end, everything must be done to ensure that the profession recruits the best candidates of the highest calibre in terms of their readiness and teacher characteristics.

Unfortunately, those who have little or no training as professional teachers are the very personnel employed by the Ghana Education Service and the private schools to discharge the very delicate duty of guiding children to discover their worth in their early ages. This gamble in actual fact has more demerits than merits if there are any. As usual, this boils down to the poor teachers’ conditions of service. Nobody in Ghana will get a doctorate in education and agree to teach in a basic school as it is misconceived as the area for less brilliant fellows. Another factor inhibiting the profession is the unavailability of proper facilities to enhance performance. Many classrooms are not fit to be called as such. It is therefore irritating at the same time laughable that Ghanaian legislators will find the construction of a world-class Parliamentary chamber more pressing a need than the provision of well-resourced classrooms across the length and breadth of this country. It is our fervent hope that one day, a government will see the need to make teaching very attractive so as to lure more vibrant youth into it. For now, teachers will keep believing their reward is in heaven. Whatever will happen to the reward of those teachers who will not make it to heaven, only God knows. Long live teachers.

BY: KPEDATOR ELORM – TEACHER, TOKUROANO M/A PRIMARY SCHOOL OTI REGIONAL CAPITAL, DAMBAI.