By Victor Ochieng’
The plausible plan to come up with a post-training institute for registered tutors and heads is a marvelous move.
It lends cache of credence to the wise words of Victor Hugo, “It is an idea whose time has come.”
The Ministry of Education (MoE) and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should have thought about it in the years of yore.
It is the only thing that can help teachers to hone their pedagogy and methodology. This, indeed, will help them polish pale parts. It is the best way to connect the obscure dots in the noble profession.
Education is an endless process and a boundless sea. Learning is a life-long process. It begins at the fledgling stage of birth, and ends at the pensive point of death.
Therefore, teachers should not accept to suffer from the destination disease. For Alvin Toffler, the Jewish philosopher, sternly warned, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and re-learn.”
Advocates look refined because of the rigorous kind of training they go through. After spending four years at the university, the legal student gains a degree in jurisprudence.
But being that life is a journey, not a destination, the student joins the Kenya School of law for a Post-graduate diploma.
Teachers also need this sort of in-depth training, because the teacher is the mid-wife that delivers the vision of the nation.
The teacher is the determinant of what nation becomes the destiny of nations. The teacher determines what kind of a lawyer defends us in court – and what sort of a doctor treats us when we become weak and sick.
The teacher is the one in charge of a child’s formative years. Seventy five per cent of that child’s life, up to the age of twenty four, is caged and confined in the gifted hands of a teacher.
That is why our education system must focus on churning out a great teacher. William Arthur Ward argued that there are four types of teachers: the mediocre teacher that tells, good teacher that explains, superior teacher that demonstrates, and great teacher that inspires. Learners need to be inspired to go for glory and greatness.
Johann Gottfried Von Herder sagely said, “Without inspiration, the best powers of the mind remain dormant; there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.”
Some teachers have not been in a position to inspire learners because they look half-baked. And as we all know, a teacher can only give what is available.
Therefore, teachers must yearn to learn more, earn more, and become more.
The classroom teacher should be re-trained on pertinent matters on classroom management, effective teaching approaches, and how to be technologically tick in these times and climes of digital revolution.
In the bid to combat the devastating impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, teachers are expected to offer psycho-social support, crisis counselling and psychological first aid to learners.
Teachers cannot ascend to these tall demands if they only rely on basic units in Psychology and Counselling they learnt in the distant past during their undergraduate courses.
Introduction to Psychology and Psychology of Education are just a miniature of what teachers should know in order help learners become mentally stable in moments of crisis, chilling challenge and change.
Recently, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) pointed out the fault lines in relation to career guidance in secondary schools.
Based on facts and figures, KUCCPS postulated that most of the schools did very little when it came to preparing learners for the world of work.
To add insult to injury, it has also been established that some school heads lack rudimentary skills in relation leadership, analysis of books of account, ways to engage stakeholders, and resource mobilisation strategies.
Methinks the solution to these litany of problems that plague principals and teachers, is to come up with the Kenya School of Education; a place where teachers can matriculate into after college or university to sharpen their tools of work.
The policy-makers should formulate well-thought-out programme for this lofty level. For instance, at this stage, allow teachers to pick pathways.
Those who have aspirations to be school heads should just focus on leadership and management.
Those who yearn to be teacher-counsellors should specialise in Guidance and Counseling, while the ones who want to delve deep into career counselling to be exposed to soft skills, employability skills, and other important facets tucked inside world of work.
This will be a game-changer in the sector of education. It will churn out preceptors who are able to produce three-sixty degree learners with great comportment.
