Quality teachers for quality education

While tools and school buildings can be improved through the provision of adequate resources for education, quality teachers are not that easy to come by.

Quality implies the ability to set and exceed performance targets.

In the context of education, these parameters are not so easy to define simply because schools are not factories but places where human capital is developed and people are given the opportunity to realise their maximum potential.

How then do we ensure that teachers are not just mechanistic in their approach to teaching but constantly positioning themselves to be able to adjust to a rapidly changing global order that is consistently redefining the education agenda? The teacher must now understand that the changing task environment implies a reorientation in thinking, beginning with a renewed appreciation for the nature and purpose of education as a precondition to defining their role and approach.

The quality teacher must be defined as one who understands the need to be a self-directed lifelong learner, teaching children how to learn rather than what to learn. He/she must be consistently surveying the global education landscape and keeping abreast of the latest developments in the field of education, constantly seeking out new approaches and consciously striving to become better educators.

Possessing university-level academic qualifications will not by itself make a quality teacher.

This academic foundation merely serves as the starting point to a career that demands constant reflection and refinement of practice. Quality teaching is thus a state of mind rather than a state of existence. It is reflected in one’s commitment to the challenge of ensuring that all schools represent a place of genuine hope for a brighter future for all children, regardless of their cognitive ability or socio-economic background.

As a professional association, TTUTA acknowledges that quality teachers will not just magically happen but will only come about through a sustained campaign of teacher re-education and professional development.

Teachers must be given not just the opportunity to engage in a sustained programme of continuous professional development both formal and informal, but they must be given the motivation and incentive to see the wisdom of this paradigm shift in education approach.

While TTUTA engages in several programmes aimed at teacher development through workshops and training sessions in and out of school, this is not enough to deliver the cadre of quality teachers that is required to transform our education system into high-performing models like Finland, Japan, Canada, Estonia or Singapore.

The Ministry of Education must have a broad vision of education as a vehicle for the emergence of a knowledge society, characterised by innovative and critical thinkers rather than a society that is contented to be consumers of knowledge and technology.

The drivers of such a vehicle must be quality teachers, operating in a dimension of professional freedom and autonomy who are seen and treated as true professionals. They in turn must be self-motivated to set and attain higher standards of practice in an atmosphere of self-regulation.

The national vision of education cannot be rooted in the failed model of the past, defining an agenda for teachers that reinforces mediocrity rather than excellence. Our societal obsession with examinations is not the platform for quality teachers.

A culture of quality must be the new norm.