Poor quality of school teachers

JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: I notice a complete lack of regard these days towards quality teaching methods.

I started to fail in mathematics the day it was introduced to me as a subject. Soon it was realised I was too vacuous to study math. I was promoted to higher classes until I reached ninth grade. I was to appear for my O’ Levels in the coming years and dropping math was not an option. A friend of mine referred me to a Bengali teacher who lived near our house. A dark, slim, short man in his checkered lungi and white vest opened his door to welcome me. In a series of no more than three questions, he figured out where I stood in math.

“I am not a mathematician but I assume a teacher should be judged by what he delivers and not what he knows,” he said. Measurement of centimetres and millimetres were taught using lentils and frequency curves through a thin stream of water. He always had some interesting technique to teach almost anything.

But one can rarely ever find such good teachers these days. While a teacher’s job is to teach, a student’s job should be to learn and just learn. However, this does not happen. Teachers induce competition between students which leads to hostility in the classroom. Students end up focusing less on the process of learning and more on scoring better grades. Moreover, students who fail to follow a set learning pattern are labeled as rebellious or disobedient.

But then there are some excellent teachers who are too good at tutoring; but then they only ‘tutor’. They fail to nurture the minds, maybe because they themselves weren’t groomed.

Teaching here is chosen not as a top vocation but as a last option. Those who fail in their respective fields teach others how to survive in it. This state of affairs will not help improve the quality of education.

Osama Nisar

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2014.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.