The face of tomorrow

It is a verifiable fact that no nation can grow beyond the level of its teachers. It is also true that if you want to get a good picture of what the future holds, just assess the average child and get the answer you seek. These two facts are linked because one depends on the other to a large extent.

The condition of the child depends on the quality of the teachers he or she is exposed to. The child’s condition also depends on the kind of parents or guardians he has, but again, the quality of these care-takers also depends on the kind of teachers they met in their time. This means that the teacher is very important in discussing anything about nation-building and the face of tomorrow.

The teacher can only give what he has. Many times, the teacher decides to give much less than what he has because he or she is not happy in his work environment.

Teaching is the most important profession on earth. It is the profession that lays the foundation for any other profession. It is also the profession that prepares the child for the challenges of life.

Teachers are a special breed of people who partner with the almighty to mould young lives into responsible adults. They go beyond career demands to motivate, inspire and challenge young minds to touch the skies. They are also role models that the child looks up to. When a society is progressing morally and economically, we must thank the teachers. When there is chaos and immorality, we must also look the way of teachers in an attempt to find out what has gone wrong.

The Nigerian society is in a mess today, and whether we like it or not, the solution must come from the teachers. No politician can fix our society if he neglects the teachers.

A cursory look at the schools today shows us why our educational system breeds more vices than virtues; why the school now seems to be a training ground for all kinds of miscreants.

The public schools are staffed by teachers who are mostly products of a defective educational system. To make matters worse, the corruption in the land makes virtually all things possible. There is little or no supervision and even when that happens, nothing comes out of it because money answereth all things. Promotions are not based on merit and as such, the qualified teachers who are not willing to play the gutter games are stagnated and frustrated. When these good teachers are demoralized, they take out their frustrations on the children they teach.

The good private schools are more careful in their selection of teachers. They go out of their way to select very good teachers whom they engage to teach their students. However, these teachers are overused and underpaid for obvious reasons. The other private schools that are just open for business and care little about quality employ just anybody as teacher. Even school dropouts qualify as teachers in such places. The result is that we have people who can do about anything to remain relevant teaching children and moulding the face of our tomorrow. They need to justify their pay by ensuring that the learners scale through the various examinations. Since these teachers do not have what it takes to make the children pass legitimately, they have to manufacture exam success by hook and crook with the active collaboration of criminal teachers.

This singular evil that is fast becoming a culture in our land is responsible for students’ apathy towards the school programme, aversion to studiousness, serious lack of discipline among young people and a myriad of other evils that culminate in lowered educational standards. It also lays the foundation for other crimes like election rigging, obtaining by trick and by fraud and other corrupt practices.

There is an urgent need to look into the quality of teachers and tighten all loose ends in the process that produces them. When teachers are produced and employed, the government should provide good incentives that will make them comfortable and happy while discharging their duties. It will be good to make all staffrooms cosy and comfortable – perhaps air-conditioned. The banker’s duty is not more important than the teacher’s. Bankers are more comfortable in their workplace than teachers because the corporate world understands the importance of such comfort in terms of how it affects productivity. Owners of schools, private and public, should take a cue from other sectors and invest in the teachers who mould the face of our future.

NNENNA Ihebom