REDEFINING TEACHING AND THE TEACHER

All the stakeholders should collaborate and push for a better teaching and learning environment

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) could not have been more apt with the theme for this year’s World Teachers’ Day, ‘Recasting teaching as a collaborative profession’. It speaks to the heart of a desperate societal need, especially here in Nigeria, while taking us back to the oft-repeated truism that ‘It takes a society to raise the child’. Such a collaboration is important for proper self-management, socialization, grooming in values and the acquisition and application of the right type of knowledge.

At a symposium in Abuja ahead of today’s occasion, Education Minister, Tunji Alausa

described teachers as “the custodians of knowledge, the builders of character, and the architects of the nation’s future” while admitting that as the foundation for all professions, teachers deserve improved welfare packages.

Held annually on 5th October since 1994, the World Teachers’ Day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UNESCO joint recommendation which “sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.” And for the first time, the ceremony to mark the day is being hosted outside their Paris headquarters by the African Union in the framework of the Pan-African Conference on Teacher Education (PACTED) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Since education is, strictly speaking, not just learning but the nurturing of the human being into a responsible member of society, this year’s theme should remind us that teaching does not begin or end with what happens in the classroom. Parents, the immediate and extended families, the kindred and the wider community must all work together to impart the cocktail of information, knowledge, skills and values involved in truly educating the child. And it is in the context of this wide spectrum of stakeholders that we should look at the theme adopted by UNESCO for this year. In recognition that the formal educational system is fed by a culture that could promote or undermine the efforts of the most hardworking of teachers, UNESCO is advocating a collaboration between all stakeholders in the sector.

In societies that value quality education, a high premium is placed on teachers who are well-remunerated. But in Nigeria, the reward system does not seem tailored to take into full account the centrality of teaching and the sacrifices of teachers. Today, many take to teaching for want of anything else to do. Unlike in the past, teaching is now a job of last resort for most people. Meanwhile, those who take up the profession are poorly paid and hardly regarded in the society. We enjoin the managers of educational structures and systems in our country to pay greater attention to the overall teaching and learning process, including policies and environmental factors that support proper knowledge impartation, peer “mutual support, shared expertise, and joint responsibility within the teaching profession”.

As Nigeria therefore joins other countries to mark the 2025 World Teachers’ Day today, it is important for authorities at all levels and other critical stakeholders to appreciate the essence of such partnerships among teachers, schools, and education systems. This is very important in any attempt to improve teaching and learning. Without such a cooperation, it would be difficult to expand the horizon of teachers or upscale their knowledge of emerging trends in the learning environment. More than at any period in our country, we need that collaboration if we must revamp the education sector that is now almost comatose. The right type of cooperation will drive professional growth and enhance teachers’ feeling of self-worth and job satisfaction.

Going forward, collaboration among a wide spectrum of stakeholders, as envisaged by UNESCO, should go beyond teachers, schools, and education systems to the most elementary foundations of our society. Beyond improving academic teaching and learning, or promoting teachers’ professional growth, we need policies that are in sync with global trends and sensitive to our peculiar educational needs.

We congratulate teachers at every level of the educational system in Nigeria. We affirm their importance as nation builders. We call for better conditions of service for them, and we urge all stakeholders to support them, invest in improving their expertise, and helping to make them better equipped for the daunting task of nurturing the young minds who represent the future of Nigeria.