Teaching... Strengthening and Revitalising the Profession.




Teachers are essential school-level determinants of children learning. They are the most important curriculum implementers. Without them, no education policy can survive and  they are expected to be very capable and highly productive.

Teachers performance to a large extent affects not only the output (citizens) they produce, but also the educational system and teaching profession at large so kin interest must be paid to why teachers performance is low...

Poor teacher performance apart from very low motivation teachers get in terms of their pityable renumeration, to a large extent boils down to the pre-service training amongst others... Like the saying goes, "you can't give what you don't have" . Some of these curriculum and training systems our pre teachers are expose to are rather obsolete. They don't correlate with our present day "jet age". Thank goodness EdoBest has come to the rescue of Edo basic education teachers in this aspect.

We also have the problem of lack of passion and interest. Quite a number of persons who find themselves studying education either in Universities or Colleges of Education came there not because they have passion for teaching, but for the fact that they were denied  entry into their preferred departments in the University or their cut off scores could only be acceptable in Faculties/Colleges of Education where cut off scores are relatively low so they jumped at the offer in avoidance of spending extra year at home thereby nicknaming it "a profession for those without better alternatives" How sad!

Again, nepotism allows those with less competencies slip through the doors and find their way into our classrooms. Food for thought!

To strengthen teacher performance, decision makers must review entry qualification into Faculties/Colleges of Education and do periodic modifications of their curriculum to suit societal changes, test prospective teachers for enthusiasm, flexibility and creativity , the process should be unbiased as it can be (hopefully) then  ensure only high potential teachers are imbebed into the profession.

All stake holders must input their resources in revitalising  the reputation of the teaching profession. Entry requirements into pre-service training should be reorganised, there should be creation of incentive scheme like recognition award or professional development opportunities for serving teachers, amongst others... Most importantly the profession should gain a path way to upwards social mobility. There should be an improvement in teachers renumeration and make it attractive for younger generations when the current crop of teachers retire.






Yours truly, Omodamwen Ehizogie

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