Quality teachers – Editorial
By Stabroek News – March 15, 2012 – Editorial |
One of the most ignorant sayings of all time is that attributed to George Bernard Shaw: “Those who can ‘do’, those who can’t teach” as it seeks to negate the teaching profession and the fact that most persons who ‘do’, unless they were born geniuses, are only able to ‘do’ because they were taught how to ‘do’.
The International Summit on the Teaching Profession, which opened yesterday in New York and ends today, was expected to reflect on a recent report commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which says that teachers need to be given “status, pay and professional autonomy”. The report also calls for teaching as a career to be made more attractive so that it will attract the brightest students.
The report, written after an examination of the schools’ systems of some of the world’s developed and highly industrialised countries, notes that education standards will remain stagnated unless the brightest recruits could be attracted to join the teaching profession.
Traditionally, the men and women entering the teaching profession did so for the love of it; because they knew they could not be happy unless they were imparting knowledge to children. Back then, too, teachers, as public servants or in private educational institutions such as those run by churches, were paid decently and were well respected as well. Not any more. Continue reading
