Being A Teacher And The Global Teacher Shortage

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CHALK TALK

Being a teacher and the global teacher shortage

By The Nation

Published on January 18, 2010

In Thailand, we just celebrated National Teachers' Day on Saturday. Each year, the Teachers' Council hands out awards and prizes to 100 teachers for their contributions to the education system.

Yet, the once-a-year tribute is not enough to strengthen the education system. And this requires comprehension and commitment from politicians and policymakers. First, they need to realise that education reforms are necessary for these teachers to feel honoured for their profes-sional work all year round.

The problems are centred around the teacher shortage, work overload, low pay and lack of con-tinuous training. Indeed, all teachers around the world face similar problems. These are in fact common obstacles to being a good teacher.

Education International (EI), at the celebration of World Teachers' Day on October 5 last year, encouraged the global pro-motion of "the role of teachers" and the need to "invest in teach-ers now" in relation to the challenges of being a teacher today and the global teacher shortage.

It's imperative that Thailand joins forces, as teachers are a key success factor for our young generation. To build the future, it is crucial to seek mechanisms that ensure sufficient and propor-tion-ate investment in teachers. The mechanism should answer: How will more intellectuals be encouraged to become a teacher? How can we attract people of various professions to a teaching career? How can we support their teaching meth-ods successfully?

First of all, teachers should know their role by heart.

Being a teacher is not simply transferring knowl-edge to students, but also seeding an ethi-cal perspective in students.

Teaching basic moral values to students essentially is one job. Though teaching goodwill seems to be impossible, a good example and best practice should be presented regularly in class. Communities such as students' homes, temples and schools play an important role in supporting that goodwill.

The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) offers impressive evidence of teachers' strong commitment to their profession and enthusi-asm for their students.

"They have a deep desire to provide quality education for all, and are willing to work hard to improve their skills to meet the diverse needs of today's challenging student populations," the |survey says.

When accessing any teacher's blog, there are similar examples of devoted teachers and their endless contribution.

"Teaching is not only in my genes, but it is in my blood, it is in my soul and it's something I adore doing" and "I want to learn about anything that will make me a better teacher" are comments with evidence of this.

TALIS admitted a lack of professional develop-ment opportunities. The data clearly shows that teachers are eager for career-long learning. Indeed, many invest their personal time, energy and funds in professional development.

It is generally accepted that to keep the best teachers in the system, their self-esteem must be nurtured. We should pay atten-tion to the teachers' teaching, facilitate them in active learning and then empower them to get more experience and foresight collectively. Let's listen to their academic and personal needs.

Recruiting a teacher from another profession may be a solution for the shortage. These teach-ers can later be trained in the teaching process. Also needed are individualised and targeted pro-grammes for them. They should not become vic-tims of school political games or political inter-vention at the national level.

Honouring committed and devoted teachers every year is a right thing, but greater benefits are foreseeable if these teachers are allowed to go back to do long-term training programmes. Like those of other professions, they need new innova-tive ideas and techniques to strengthen their teaching skills. Certainly, some could be encour-aged to pursue excellence in administrative or other special areas. Those of other professions should be encouraged to become teachers.

Now, if Chinnaworn Boonyakiat, the new education minister, takes his job seriously, it is time for him to open discussions on how this mechanism will take shape - or else the annual awards given to some teachers would not be enough to address the problem that involves 450,000 teachers and nearly 10 million students nationwide.

Priyakorn Pusawiro

Learning Scientist

Computer Engineering Department, KMUTT

pusawiro(at)cpe.kmutt.ac.th

-- The Nation 2010-01-18

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