Preamble:
We will start this work from the words of the Ontario Ministry of
Education as thus; “When students are engaged in their learning and
social environment, they are better able to develop the skills and knowledge
and grasp the opportunities that can help them reach their full potential,
pursue lifelong learning, and contribute to a prosperous, cohesive society...”
From the
aforesaid, it is pivotal to point out that a better tomorrow by a better child
resulting from the activities of a better teacher is dependent on the level of
exposure at the disposal of the child within and outside the four walls of his
or her classroom which is achieved via the assiduous activities of the
teacher(s) and the school as a whole.
Conclusively
from the above quote, the education sector could
be perceived as being the root sector towards the growth and prosperity of any
nation via its transcending effect to other sectors.
These said, the perception of the pupil on the essence of schooling is
contributory to him or her making the world a better place due to the acquired
knowledge by the child all through his or her education years.
Also, the nature and level of perception by the student on the
essence of schooling, added to the attitude and approach to knowledge transfer
from the teacher to student/pupil contributes to strengthening and deepening
the child’s love for schooling thereby efficiently shaping him or her for a
better tomorrow through his or her contribution to the nation as a whole which
will in one way or the other, directly or indirectly affect the world.
It is imperative to reiterate that the limitless contribution of
the educational sector of any country to her economic and all round prosperity
is one that should be given the biggest and best attention by not just the
government but the private individuals and other stakeholders involved in
education.
As against having a good educational sector; crime, terrorism and
a stagnant/backward economy will be looming for all within the territorial
boundaries of a nation.
These said, I do opine that there are three major inseparable
players in the educational sector which will be treated below.
The Three Inseparable Players:
The first two inseparable players are; the teachers and the pupil
or student. The third player is one that provides the environment in which the
aforementioned two players are able to efficiently interact and work towards
making learning meaningfully productive. The third player in this vein is the
School.
At this juncture, it is pivotal to point out that to get these
players to work as a unit in the best possible way, the activities of the
stakeholders outside the school environment cannot be overemphasized. These
stakeholders include parents, guardians and all tiers of government.
At this juncture, for a nation to experience an all-round
meaningful education sector that would ease her achievement towards being a
developed nation and one to be reckoned with in the international community, it
is imperative for all three players to be given the best and possibly, an equal
attention by the stakeholders involved in education.
But the big question here is who has a direct impact on the child?
In my opinion, it is the teacher.
Being a Better Teacher and Building the Child:
In achieving a better world, the foundational stage of education,
precisely the nursery, primary or elementary education level is one that should
never be overlooked. This is because being ignorant to this will lead to
nonchalance by not just the teacher but the school towards being efficient at
efficiently getting the leaders of tomorrow well groomed and shaped up.
In addition, regular changes, improvement and modifications in the
teaching profession necessitates the urgency for the activities of the teacher,
through the need for a continuous training, advancement and improvement of his
or her approach to teaching which are paramount to the achievement of the
preceding paragraph are well encouraged by the school with whom the teacher is
working with.
Also getting the teachers acquainted with the current knowhow in
teaching efficacy should be well encouraged by the school that wants
improvement in its teachers’ knowledge transfer delivery as evident in
the added knowledge assimilated which entails the school regularly,
from time to time directly train its staff on such needed improvement or
knowledge acquisition or indirectly through the encouragement of its staff to
embark on educational programmes, courses and seminars that would meaningfully
contribute towards making the teacher more refined and upgraded to a better and
up to date productive individual. Just like the strength of a building being
erected for almost forever without collapsing is rooted in how professionally
its foundation was laid, the foundational nature of the elementary school is
the pivotal reason why parents pay so much attention to the performance of
their child at the primary school level compared to the more advanced levels.
According to the International Education Roundtable held in
Singapore in 2009, “to get the most out of talented teachers it is critical
that systems effectively support the development of that talent. The most
powerful avenue for this is high quality collaborative, job-focused
professional development amongst teachers and school leaders.”
In addition, a survey highlighted by them pointed out that “teachers
who exchange ideas and co-ordinate their practices with other teachers also
report more positive teacher-student relations at their schools.
Due to this, I feel that the aforesaid is aimed at building the
relationship among schools teachers and building a collaborative relationship
and atmosphere among these players thereby riddling out any sort of unfriendly
relationship and interaction in what I refer to as the nation building sector thus,
the education sector
The primary purpose of school establishment is noteworthy to its
achievement. In this respect, to the school leader or school based entrepreneur,
venturing into the establishment of a school entails him or her having a long
term ambition, not just for the purpose of ensuring a continued growth in
numbers but most importantly a continued growth in quality as evident in the
effect these numbers will have in the country and the world in general. In
achieving this, having the right caliber of teachers and the right environment
and education based infrastructures will propel such achievement.
In my opinion, the quality of education goes a long way in skyrocketing
the numbers of the school. This is what most school leaders miss out in
Nigeria, they look out for the numbers without having a thought of quality.
In this regards, the government of Lagos should be well commended
through its continued clampdown on the mushroom schools that are
embarrassingly dragging the education system to the mud. No doubt, the
government at all levels is also guilty of this demerit as government owned
schools are also devoid of quality, employing half-baked teachers and even when
they have the quality and best teachers, the facilities to promote a
qualitative teacher-student relationship are not in place.
In ensuring that the child is driven to be a better child in order
to make the world better, the teacher has to have a close working relationship
with his or her children (pupils).
At this juncture, I opine that it would be mistaken for a teacher
to perceive his best pupil as “best” because this could be suicidal in the long
run. In retrospect, irrespective of the pupil’s on-going academic performance,
be it the “best” pupil in the class, there is still need for the teacher to
work closely with the “best” student and make him or her better for in every
best pupil in the classroom, there could be a better part of him or her
untapped. This is achieved through the activities of a better teacher.
Just like we started, we will end this work from the words of the
Ontario Ministry of Education “Schools have a vital role to play in
preparing our young people to take their place as informed, engaged, and
empowered citizens whom will be pivotal in shaping the future of our
communities, our province, our country, and our global environment “
