The Education Mafia – The teachers! Part 1

An extract from an article in the Daily Mirror of 1^st Sept.2012.

“Teaching is not a profession. It is or rather should be meant for only those teachers who love being with children/young adults, who enjoy engaging with them and encouraging them to learn. If teachers do not have creativity, adaptability, resourcefulness and thoughtful planning it is highly unlikely they will succeed as teachers. Children are unlikely to get anything out of their teaching as well.

It is now time to stop the blame game and start cleaning up the mess that is Education and bring it to a level that we can feel proud about because we are dealing with Sri Lanka’s future.”

The accompanying article lays much of the blame of Education on the teaching profession, be they school teachers or university teachers.

What it implies is that whilst teachers are agitating for parity with equivalence, using examples in other countries, the teachers here do not adhere to the teaching standards of other countries, where lessons must be carefully prepared, and teachers come to work at least half hour before  the pupils, so as to plan the day, and stay till 5pm at least to plan for the next day, as mandated in many other countries where their performance and knowledge is tested continuously and measured, and updated. This is done so that they are able to give their utmost to the student. This would also hold true for University Lecturers. In short, in Sri Lanka it is just a job with a salary and pensions and nothing else. They do not come under the category above. Graduates are just given politicized teaching posts.

Whilst I subscribe to that argument, it is up to the Government to train the teachers well, so they perform their duties and also use other aptitude tests for entry into teacher training schools so only committed teachers are trained and hired. Teacher training is woefully lacking in Sri Lanka, with underfunded and hopelessly managed ‘Teacher Training Schools’ churning out inadequately prepared graduates or trainees to teach.

It takes a certain type of person to be a teacher. That is hard to find, however if these positions are made attractive, one will find more capable applicants and with politicization reduced in Education we can do it.