Ladies and gentlemen, citizens and residents of our beloved Federation. Let us for a moment consider the state of youth in our nation. The 2020/2021 school year has begun, and while much has changed, not the least of which is the reality of the covid-19 pandemic, much remains the same. Too much of this sameness is cause for concern and not cause for comfort.
Once again schools have opened with a shortfall of teachers and an uncertainty of the complement of teachers. Once again, we hear of initiatives to provide youth with a second chance. Delinquency initiatives. Youth initiatives. Gang initiatives. What do these initiatives look like? How much do they cost? Who funds them? Are we closing the proverbial gate after the horse has left the stable? Are we purchasing a pound of cure, and failing to budget for an ounce of prevention?
Are we investing in gangsters while under-investing in teachers? Is our nation paying for peace at the cost of a progressive agenda for our children? We pay for second chances in a resource scarce circumstance, while compromising and inhibiting the effective development of first chances. A well known saying advises us to bend the tree while it is young. Can we have a teacher initiative? Does a teacher initiative qualify as a delinquency initiative?; A youth initiative?; Can a teacher initiative be considered a gang initiative? Who will fund this teacher initiative?
Taking care of our teachers is taking care of our children. When our children’s schools have a deficit of teachers, schools don’t lose students. This means increases in class sizes. In some cases significant increases. Any teacher will tell you that as class size goes up, the class becomes less manageable. Once again, we hear the responses “Teachers can handle it”. “We all have hard jobs”. “That’s what they’re paid for.”
To place class sizes in perspective, understand that larger class sizes and greater student to teacher ratios lead to student discipline issues. Some of our students are struggling with learning disabilities or emotional challenges. Many of our students need accommodations like extra time or individual attention. A percentage of our students will not have slept well last night, need help with a skill, or are going through a personal emergency. Our students will have different reading and doing levels and need to be differentiated for every assignment. Class gets interrupted, needs get unmet, there are too many questions to answer, too many distractions. A tragedy of a different kind manifests if a student is one of those that does not fall into multiple of the categories above. Your hard-working and polite student will be left unchallenged, as the teacher spends the time dealing with the varied and urgent, immediate demands of the class. This is harmful to both teacher and student. The result of the unintended neglect is often guilt and apathy. Teaching, with its close proximity to the nation’s children, is once again overburdened and underfunded.
We teachers will once again react to an unsupportive environment by double-down on our efforts. Once again start running after-school programs. Once again teachers will take pride in our ability to creatively manage a classroom with half the resources. Once again we will show the world the indomitable spirit of our students. Unfortunately, these practices don’t tend to be sustainable. Everyone has a breaking point. Teachers and students in classrooms across the nation will reach their breaking point, term by term, class by class, and student by student.
Once again, neglect of our teachers will tragically result in neglect of our nation.
Teachers: Bearers of Light
In the Hub and Spoke of life, education is that centrifugal force that sends light and energy to all life forms that surround it. If the God particle of this universe were to be equated to any one thing that illuminates and brings about transformative change in this universe and to its inhabitants, it would be knowledge. This is because, there is no measure of personal, economic, social, spiritual or business innovation and advancement that mankind has achieved without drawing from that eternal fountain of knowledge.
Throughout the millennia, mankind has entrusted men and women to be the bearers of light and keepers of knowledge. In the African traditions, they were Griot or Wise Ones. The Jews called them Rabbi. In the traditions of the Greeks and Egyptians, we call them Teacher. Like the Divine, the Teacher touches the lives, the hearts and the potential of every one of us by the impartation of knowledge.
On October 5 each year, Education International rededicates its efforts to salute Teachers as enablers of human advancement. We are nothing without the guidance teachers in every generation, every classroom and subject give. Every political leader, Nobel Prize winner, scholarly writer, innovator and success story throughout the world has been touched by the influence of a Teacher.
Sometimes, I yearn for the simple days when we all held Teachers as the final authority on learning. There was a time in our childhood innocence when we corrected our parents on matters by telling them, “No. Teacher said…” It is often sad when Teachers are not held in awe and esteemed highly. One cringes at the thought of having made teaching less than the noble calling it is, rather regarding it as a dumping ground for social and political rejects of the public service.
It is a concern when the bearers of light arrive to the halls of learning with heavy hearts each day. The weight of a system that does little to educate and elevate sits heavily on the shoulders of our Teachers. Our custodians of enlightenment are asked to remain chained to classroom management systems that have long been outmoded. As deans of discipline, our Teachers are asked to operate in a system where they face more disciplinary action than misbehaved students.
It is sad to believe that many of the administrators who seek to put out the light of Teachers once numbered among the nobly called. They too once knew what it was to put light in the eyes of a child with innovations that reached him/her in ways that mattered.
On World Teachers’ Day 2020, I join with Education Internationational in observing the theme, “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future”. Reaching our children in times of the new normal needs greater involvement of Teachers and demands less restrictions. The involvement of Teachers demands more inclusion of Teachers and their representative organization, the Teachers’ Union, rather than issuing instructions.
The leadership of our schools, as halls of learning and discipline, should result from a competitive process where positions are advertised (as stated in the law) allowing the most committed and capable to apply and not be passed over for handpicked favourites. Salaries for teachers should be commensurate with the awesome responsibilities of building a nation. Thus, their pay packages should rival those of doctors, lawyers and engineers.
It takes a national commitment to honouring our Teachers everyday by the way we treat each member of this noble profession. Are they babysitters or national builder? The way we condition our education system determines this. Are they just public servants or bearers of enlightment? The pay scale and limitations would determine what we think.
Inspite of it all, our Teachers persevere. They continue to be ardent and dedicated bearers of light. They continue to share their meals with children who do not have. They continue to buy classroom learning aid from their meagre earnings. They give extra lessons for no other reason than the love of being a light bearer. They continue to drink from the fountain of knowledge and share it passionately with our children.
I celebrate Teachers all over the world today. I celebrate the pre-K and primary school Teachers who are foundation builders. I celebrate the middle school and high school Teachers who offer guidance to unbridled minds during the tough tween and teen years. I also celebrate the college and university lecturer and skill training schools instructors who help to polish our students into becoming fit for service to God and country. You are all worth celebrating.
Happy Teachers’ 2020 to all Teachers. Continue to be the bearers of light in what would have been, without you, a very dark world. Go light our world!