The teacher enters the classroom looking forward to guiding students into new areas of knowledge; opening minds to possibilities never before imagined; helping to shape thinking; moulding character and impacting the upcoming generation. She figures that with all that she will be putting into doing the job with excellence that she will be compensated decently. [The gender of the teacher is feminine since the greatest percentage of our teachers is female. The situation,however, applies to both genders.]
The teacher expects that after being in the classroom for some years and being wise in saving, she will be able to have a car and a home of her own. She is sure that she will receive society's respect for the significant contribution that she will make to the development of productive citizens for the nation.
These are the normal expectations of someone who has chosen the profession, someone who feels called to make a contribution to society. She expects to be rewarded for her training and the work she does. Society, however, sees these expectations as laughable. We know this because of the reality that exists in the teachers' world - a reality that makes it clear that teachers are the society's buffoons.
THE REALITY
On entering the classroom, in this case at the secondary level, the teacher sees a room packed beyond capacity with students who are ill-prepared to learn. There are students who are sleeping because they live in areas where gunshots are so prevalent that they cannot sleep. There are others who have been so abused at home that their eyes are glazed over and they are unaware of what is happening around them. Then there are others who are out to prove that they are in control of the class and work to undermine the teacher's control. There is general laughter and mayhem. The teacher takes half of the class time to get the students quiet. The lesson that was planned was not completed. The teacher leaves the class feeling frustrated. The frustration is further exacerbated by the lack of resources. Add to this the recent threat to the teacher's person from the very students whose lives she is seeking to mould into better persons.
The teacher goes home with many books to mark and realises that because of the number of errors, the task will take three times as long. She goes to sleep after midnight and wakes up a few hours later to catch the bus before the crowd descends to arrive at school for 7:00 a.m. the next day.
The teacher realises that she is required to play many roles in the classroom, many for which she is not prepared. She is required to be not just a teacher but a mother, a big sister, a counsellor, a mediator, a lawyer, a nurse, a provider of lunch money and bus fare and a security guard. The teacher tries to deal with all these roles while trying to figure out her own personal issues.
There are times when she finds it difficult to come to school because there is no bus fare left after paying all the utility bills and the rent. The teacher feels that perhaps she could work a second job but because of the amount of preparation and marking that has to be done, she finds that she has little time left to do this. If the teacher gets a second job then the first will suffer.
The teacher finds out from the landlord that the flat she is living in is going to be renovated and that he needs the place to be vacated. She tries to find accommodations. She is disrespected because potential landlords do not want to rent their places to teachers because their salaries are too low.
Expectations a joke
This same teacher who left university feeling that teaching was a profession which would enable her to give back to society, who felt that she would enjoy seeing others learn and that society would surely compensate her for her hard work, now finds that society thinks that these expectations are jokes to be ridiculed. She finds herself unable to make ends meet taking home $40,000 per month. She finds herself thinking that clearly she made a mistake when she had set teaching as her professional goal.
When are we, as a society, going to realise that our educational output will not improve unless we begin to treat the teachers who have the care of our children for the greater percentage of the day with dignity and respect? When are we going to realise that giving adequate remuneration to our teachers with decent working conditions will pay off in exponential terms to our children and our nation?
There is a natural law in the universe which says that we reap what wesow. As a nation, we are sowing frustration, discord, disrespect and abuse to our teachers. What should we expect to reap from such seeds but discontentment, lack of productivity, inertia, lack of motivation, absence of zeal and passion?
How many persons in other professions could perform at their best under such negative circumstances?
Sacrifice
Yet, I am thankful that there are many teachers, who, despite the situation within which they must function, do so with grace, professionalism and much sacrifice. Yet it should not be so.
I contend that our government needs to put the education of our young first. They must see that the needs of the primary functionaries in the system, the teachers, are taken care of in a way that will enable them to operate at their optimum. I contend that the Government needs to see that teachers are continually assessed and upgraded, needs to make our teachers earn a decent salary and needs to give our teachers working conditions which are commensurate with the requirements of the job.
Esther Tyson is principal of Ardenne High School, St. Andrew.
