Empower teachers to raise sober learners

On Saturday, October 5, the world celebrated World Teacher's Day amid growing need for better child upbringing in a world that is getting chaotic by the day.

This is a day set aside to not only celebrate how teachers are transforming education but also to reflect the support they need to seamlessly deploy their talent and vocation to rethink the way ahead for the profession globally. This year's event was themed “Valuing teacher voices; towards a new social contract for education.”

Teaching has been considered a noble profession since time immemorial and rightly so. The influence of a teacher spans ages and spreads like wildfire. Teachers are disseminators of knowledge, transformative intellectuals, creators of a value system, paragons of morality, beacons of hope and nobility, social engineers, untiring mentors, counsellors, parent surrogates and society's firsthand torchlight of enlightenment.

These individuals, who are more often than not humble and down to earth, consume their candle to light others, thus illuminating the world. Paradoxically, teachers encounter myriad challenges that undermine their resolve to raise a sober generation of globally productive and responsible citizens.

 In developing countries like Kenya, teachers’ contribution vis-a-vis their remuneration leaves much to be desired, something that cannot be said of developed economies like Germany and the United States that treat their teachers as treasured gems. This occasions a brain drain as some feel disenfranchised by a government that only cares about the political class. The government must consider raising teachers’ salaries to boost their morale.

 Growing teacher shortages and declining work conditions, especially in the wake of a chaotic CBC transition, have made teaching in Kenya a daunting challenge. The government must improve infrastructure by making funds available to cash-strapped schools that are bursting at the seams, hire enough tutors and provide learning paraphernalia. Modern lackadaisical parenting has also hurt teaching. Parental absenteeism has led to the rise of errant learners, some of whom challenge school authority.

Mr Mwirichia is a high school teacher.