By M. O. Shutti-Jimoh
M. O. Shutti-Jimoh
ABOUT tenth past edition of this magazine’s
terrestrial print media, Civics Journal, the interview of Dr.
Adebanwi was published with a curious heading that read: Private School Teachers have no
Future. Based on the feedback I received over the publication, I have
decided to go back to the basis in order to update my colleagues with the
origin of that piece. From my evaluation of the rejoinders even when the
concluding part of that interview is yet to be published, I had to conclude
that many may have missed this very missive I had earlier put out with the
above poser topic. Therefore; In the edition of September 21, 2020 of the same print
media platform, I decided to republish it in complete verbatim in other to
create a sequence that will rationally help to connect it to the relevance of
Dr. Adebanwi's ultimate counseling position. In my opinion, this is one way the
teachers that could have been privileged to encounter all the parts of the
thesis would have a full grasp of the inherent motivational counselling aimed
at building up their esteem. However, when this spirit of World Teachers Day crept
in today, I considered it the best of gift I could post to all my colleagues at
their various homes through this online platform since It is coming as a new
serial. While I term it my best gift, you teachers have the final rating right
after reading all. So let’s go there!
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| Photo of a teacher Sourced Online |
"WE were at a board meeting of our organisation, a Lagos based NGO, with membership
mobilisation as agenda at stake. From every gerrymandering of flying opinions
in contribution to the table, the idea of going to the teacher's constituency
surfaced. But in immediate sifting with precision of timed sensitivity to the
mention of 'teachers', the chairman broke his renowned tradition of
attentiveness to all shades of opinion for his summary with a three-word
sentence: 'rule out teachers'.
“Of course, with equivalent alacrity,
the curiosity of the members flaunted out. What's wrong with teachers? One of
us asked?”
That was a tale from a male family
friend in an enthusing exchange of banter over my choice of education as a
career, and the answer of the chairman to the last question is better kept away
from this page against further discouragement of the youths of carrier
prospective age from considering education for one. I can still recollect how touchy
it was to me even with my passion for the profession.
For readers to get my passion for
education as a profession is to reflect on my academic profile through primary
and secondary school levels as basis for my distinction from career refuge in
the sector.
Basically, I'm an educationist not by
accident of poor academic grades at basic elementary levels of academics; not
by dint of hard struggle to gain admission from desperate quest for university
education; and not by blind desire for financial independence constrained by
unemployment; but by intrinsic passion inspired by the career profile of the
many personages of the Nigeria's Members of the Order of Niger (MON ) – known
and latent – that will never complete
without the role of teaching profession in their paths of stepping stone to the
height of greatness.
And in service, I tell you dear
colleagues/comrades, that passion has consistently defined what value I place
on myself as a teacher. But, additionally, that value is truly enhanced by the
fact that along the paths of my academic profile to completing my course of
teaching profession, I always had requirements far above official stipulations
for the admissions qualification irrespective the pride status of the
university in Nigeria.
Check it out: that I was the Senior
Girl in a public primary school in the late 1970s could attest to my brilliance
then. And at Secondary level, I finished with 5As (Distinctions) and 3 credits
at a single sitting in 1984; a time when two sittings were liberal criteria for
filling the university quotas. And for
my JAMB qualifying exams, I had 279 points for my Biology Education as First
Course and Chemistry Education for the Second Course. Meanwhile, the cut-off point for Medicine at
the University of my First Choice for that year (1984) was 273 points.
Except from strict and satisfactory
encouragement from my father, everyone around me thought I was an idiot wasting
a Divine endowment for a great future! And the more the discouragement came,
the more an embolden question stood out in my mind: “isn't there a good future
for a teacher?” This question remains the driving point of my interest in
teachers' welfare with pursuit of earthly reward to date.
The most interesting aspect of that
year of my admission was the Dean of Engineering Faculty of the University
wooing me to come and be the only female Engineering student to be admitted for
that year because I had A3 in Additional Mathematics (now Further Mathematics)
and A2 in both Physics and Mathematics at piece. But that poser kept sustaining
my passion for education, especially in reconciliation with those Nigeria
figures of the Order of Niger (I mean those with values).
Go through the biography of those
great men that dotted the pinnacles of Nigeria's politics and businesses at the
era in reference – the like of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Alhaji Shehu
Shagari, etc. They were all confirmed to have teaching experiences as part of
their carrier profile. At a time, the Shehu Shagari's flaunting of teaching
profession with pride then as President and Commander-and-Chief of the Armed
Forces of Nigeria also enhanced my positive perspective for the profession.
All this is about me and a few others
of about one out of every thousands of Nigerian teachers, representing the visage
of true value of education by self packaging from the intrinsic passion that
drove us into it. But why not every teacher – just like every doctor, engineer,
lawyer, accountant, and other professionals – who adore and beatify the true
value of their professions naturally.
Rather we carry poverty in our faces
as the trade mark of that noble profession by that persistent abject forlorn
gaze of internal sadness with which we receive people.
From the above understanding, it
must now be clear to us what our primary problem is and I pronounce it as
'complex of inferiority' among the peers of professional bodies. But the
question is: where does this problem originate from?
We can find the answer in an inverse
question to this by asking it the other way round: what gives the other
professional bodies their sense of pride?
It is because they are generally believed to be primarily driven by high
level of intelligence and this is a fact that is justified by all parameters of
academic templates to building a career.
We would be gliding in the air of
fantasy of self-illusion if we fail to accept that the professions of medicine,
law, engineering and accountancy are truly classified as the exclusive reserve
of intelligent and super-intelligent categories of students.
Curiously, this is as much the
education profession is also classified as the exclusive reserve for the below
average students that 90 percent of us truly belongs. We should also not be
surprised to know that this percentage has a majority class of us that hold
what we may yet describe as augmented first degree certificate.
What do I mean by this? For having 2
credits and three passes, we rose from the level of Teacher's Certificate II
(TCII) to qualify for the stage of National Certificate of Education (NCE)
tertiary level. Alternatively, we begin from what is now popular as Pre-NCE
because we have only managed to have three credits and two passes. Of course,
as we should know, all these approaches are augmentation paths to getting the
NCE just because we could not manage to get the Pre-requisite four credits and
a pass in relevant subjects to qualify for direct admission for the NCE.
With the NCE, however we get it; we
then apply to the University level with this, feeling comfortable to spend
another three years of study to the already spent. And where we get direct
admissions to the University through the JAMB's UTME in most cases, we were
offered the education course not out of our direct application for it as First
Choice, but an alternative the University offers to fill its admission
vacancies in the faculty of Education.
It would appear that this third-rating
background would have overwhelmed us, ramifying our psyche to becloud our sense
of exploration of our potential in the post-academic career life. If not, we
would realize that not all graduates of the high-flying professions we have so
ennobled also make success of their career beyond the pride the profession
confers on them.
We may ask ourselves; do we have one
tenth of private hospitals to the numerical strength of the physicians, granted
the ultimate goal of every medical doctor is to own one. Charge and bail
lawyers are numerous. Many engineering graduates have not made any breakthrough
by creative designing required of their practice, much more being creatively
productive appropriately.
What I seem to imply by these
observations is that at the era of our post-university education, the success
of every graduate in the open society, irrespective of his/her career choice is
a function of how he/she personally ennobled himself with the career.
That leads us to the question of how
does a teacher ennobles himself with the teaching
Teachers are known to work in decent environment
A school environment sourced online
profession? Before dwelling
into that, let me share a story narrated by Ubong Nelson with you.
Mfonobong gushed, “there was this boy who was experiencing learning difficulties, since I was not seen as being useful, he was asked to be dumped with me in the room, It was then I began thinking what could be the challenge”. After the encounter, Mfonobong scurried the internet for solutions to the child's learning problem. Today Mfonobong has become indispensable at the school she works, where a new unit for children with learning disabilities and other challenges are overseen by her ears.
“Relating her story to me, Mfonobong
gushed: ‘there was this boy who was experiencing learning difficulties. Since I
was not seen as being useful, he was asked to be dumped with me in the room, It
was then I began thinking what could be the challenge”. After the encounter,
Mfonobong scurried the internet for solutions to the child's learning problem.
Today Mfonobong has become indispensable at the school she works, where a new
unit for children with learning disabilities and other challenges are overseen
by her. Not only that, Mfonobong is a consultant to many schools in Nigeria,
maintaining a portfolio of staff in these schools, private homes, and holding
trainings for others in addition to her many certifications internationally.”
This story may sound illusory if we
fail to get a grasp of where Nelson was coming from. He dwelt into it after
raising a poser thus: “Is it true that most Nigerian teachers are not ‘ambitious?’
He went further to conclude on this that we “run a regimented life of leading
the learning process from the available curriculum” – and we believe the “job
is done” routinely on daily basis! How does this notion relate to you? Give
yourself the right answer in true conscience until we meet in the next serial
that you should by now guess what may be its theme.
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