Teachers’ status vis-à-vis learner performance
Over the centuries, there have been debates over the most important component in the didactic situation. Firstly, it was believed that the subject matter was the central focus in the teaching-learning situation.
Some scholars felt otherwise and came up with the theory, that indeed it was the teacher who was most crucial in the whole process. But of late philosophers like Rousseau and Dewey advocated the stance that the interests of the child reigned supreme and should be respected and be the centre of the didactic situation.
These deliberations and debates have led to the current emphasis on learnercentred education. However, despite these researches and findings, the role of the teacher in the didactic pedagogic situation cannot be underrated. Even the advent of technology likecomputerscannot replace the teacher in the classroom.
The main reason is that learners wherever they are will always need a human face, affection, one to talk to, and one to correct them, which machines and other gadgets cannot do. In other words, a classroom teacher is irreplaceable for now, and maybe that will be possible in another world. Despite the irreplaceability of teachers, their status has waned over the years for one reason or another.
Political independence has equally impacted the status of teachers and the performance of learners. After 32 years of nationhood, the Namibian teacher has dismally failed to shed off the colonial mentality in order to embrace nationalism.
This can be demonstrated by the number of teachers who prefer to be stuck in their regions of origin. In order to change the education system and their status, teachers’ roles have remained insignificant like during the struggle for independence. After Namibia got independence in 1990, the status of teachers plummeted head down especially for the high number of failing learners recorded every year.
The same situation was equally observed among Zambian teachers as evidenced by Mwanakatwe, the minister of education in Kaunda’s first cabinet in 1964 when he pointed out that since independence, there has been a gradual but conspicuous erosion of the teacher’s status as more Zambians reached the upper rungs of the civil society.
While in the pre-independence days the African teacher, more especially the African headmaster, held an enviable position of leadership and influence, four years later after independence, it was the senior administrative officer who commanded authority and respect as the true successor of the former colonial administrator (Mwanakatwe, 1968).
In reiterating Mwanakatwe’s sentiments Tiberondwa (1976) laments that it was true that teachers were no longer held in high esteem.
Before independence, the teaching profession was perhaps the most highly respected and envied among Africans. Everywhere the teacher went a green carpet was laid for him.
The teacher was second to the district commissioner in the number of eggs and chickens he received from the people around in appreciation of his services. Unfortunately, that “golden age” for teachers is gone, and perhaps gone forever. Now, after independence all teachers can receive for his services is ridicule from students and the public.
This is evident in the Namibian situation in which after thirty-two years of Independence the failure rate is skyrocketing every examination. This impacts the status of teachers by societies and communities teachers are serving.
In terms of the spread of knowledge, teachers no longer play the role of jack-of-all-trades or multi factors jobs. There are people and learners who know more than the teachers. Some teachers depend more on textbooks, whereas other people and learners in the society might have been to some places, which are taught in History and Geography.
These people like politicians’ children could articulate about these places better than teachers, and in the process challenge the capability of the teacher to pass the learners.
The teaching profession has become vague nowadays as it includes both trained and untrained ones. In addition, many people joined the teaching profession for money and hence do not perform as per the requirements of the profession. This trend also degrades the status of teachers, as some of them may not be in a better position to teach effectively as they are not experts in the subjects they handle.
According to economic factors, the salaries of teachers remain very low as compared to other workers with the same qualifications. In some cases, even lowly personnel are more paid than teachers, resulting in many of these acquiring items, which can raise their social status. Many teachers cannot afford to buy cars, which are signs of status. In terms of kinship obligation, many members of the family nowadays are capable of providing for themselves as the majority have acquired the necessary education hence there is no reason for depending on one teacher in the family. In fact, there could be many teachers and other workers holding different occupations in the family, therefore, the reliance on one teacher is not practical.
In addition, there are many factors that have impacted the status of the teachers in order for them to enhance the performance capacity of learners. The failure of the authorities to provide adequate textbooks and other educational materials has reduced the confidence and status of teachers and hence failed to deliver the learningteaching process as expected.
It is therefore imperative for the authorities to move in and assist teachers who are struggling to build up their status.