By Aliyu U. Tilde
Supervision
Even the most competent teachers need supervision. Headmasters must be competent, charismatic and committed to ensuring that every teacher in their school works as required by his terms of duty: He plans his lessons, reports punctually, delivers the lessons conscientiously, assists his pupils in learning and monitors their behavior, reports problems to the headmaster, etc.
Then the supervisors must ensure that the headmasters and their teachers deliver what his expected of them. They evaluate performances of schools and report same to the local education authority office where problems and their solutions are handled.
Beyond the above two are inspectors from SUBEB, the body which bear the ultimate burden of education delivery in the state. It monitors activities of the local education authorities and ensure that standards are adhered to. Where has it been all this while?
If the governor will dig a bit deeper beyond the class teacher, he will find that supervisory officers and authorities are equally wanting. Otherwise, what hid the incompetence of the 20,000 teachers away from government until last week when the competency test was administered? The supervisors are, therefore, either incompetent or indolent.
I have seen supervisory headmasters who abscond from duty for over 15 years and are still on government payroll. They pay others to concoct reports for them. I have seen both primary and secondary schools that have not been inspected for over 10 years at local, st.e and federal levels. How can teachers and schools be expected to meet public expectation through self-supervision?
However, when teachers are sufficiently trained, adequately supervised to ensure that they give in their best, only the dearth in teaching materials, motivation and measurement will prevent them from attaining the best standard. Let us discuss each briefly.
Materials
The third thing that determines teachers output is his tools: books and other materials needed to deliver his lesson effectively. Governments today pay little attention to these too. They are concerned about boosting pupil attendance by spending billions on school lunch but they are less concerned about providing the necessary teaching materials in schools or helping pupils with learning materials like exercise books and textbooks, things that the budget of school lunch of just a month can provide. Schools are likewise left without registers and other basic stationary for teachers and school administration. Like in other areas, there is a complete abdication of responsibility by government.
Motivation
When motivation is mentioned, people often think of remunerations only. It goes beyond that. Teachers can be motivated of course with better wages, promptly paid; however, nothing will motivate them better than reading a transparent commitment to improving standard of education by government. When standard of education rises, so would the reputation of the teacher rise in society.
Let there be a system of reward and punishment in place. The few diligent will always work with little motivation but the majority needs carrot and stick policy to meet the desired standard of conduct. Private schools have this in place. They do not tolerate underperformance from teachers despite their meager wages and go to any extent to retain good ones. Government must use the same strategy. Schools are learning centres, not welfare centres.
Introduce competition among teachers for a prize, say a 200,000 for the best teacher in each subject at local government and state levels; N1million for the best headmaster or best performing school, etc. We do it in sports, then why not in education? In another vein, discipline underperforming teachers, headmasters, supervisors, and way up to the SUBEB chairman where necessary. Threaten them with dismissal aw they will sit up. Your Excellency, ba a bori da sanyin jiki.
Also, let teachers be provided with the right pupils, training, materials and supervision. They will register a success that will make them proud of their profession. Let us see that their success brings about a flood of pupils from private to public schools, as I saw it happen in some states before.
Measurement
Finally, here comes the barometer. I have realized that teachers’ performance needs to be measured annually through the performance of their pupils in a statewide standard test, earning each teacher a reward or a reprimand as the performance of his or her pupils may indicate. Without holding teachers accountable for the performance of their pupils, when other factors are considered, only few will thrive to put in their best. The era of leaving teachers on their own to evaluate their students is gone.
Pupils will also work harder when they know that they need to pass an examination before they are promoted to the next class. This practice, which was there in our days, has long been abandoned for an “automatic promotion” policy that has made both teachers and pupils equally indolent.
I therefore strongly recommend the reintroduction of promotion exams among pupils and let there be a way that authorities will make teachers share in the success or failure of their pupils in such examinations. This is the best way to judge whether a teacher has imparted the desired knowledge to his pupils or not.
Conclusion
In my submission above, I have advised El-Rufa’i on what to do with his 20,000 incompetent teachers: Do not dismiss them; retrain and retrain them instead. But in addition to retraining them, there is the need to put in place training programs for all staff at different levels of the education chain. Beyond training, lack of adequate supervision, teaching materials, motivation and measurement needs to be addressed unfailingly, without which even the best teachers in the world will yield nothing. It is a complete overhaul of the system, which when done or even started, the governor can confidently tell his citizens that the state is once more on the path of educational glory.
Tilde writes from Bauchi
