Noble profession: Power of teachers in the society

That I spent about 15 hours in four days watching and listening to speeches and entertainment at the just concluded star-studded Democratic National Convention held in Chicago was not for nothing.

The pomp and pageantry, the glitz and glamour and above all the humour and wisdom that I was able to glean from the activities was very refreshing. Predictably the star speakers were former US presidents Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama and their equally articulate wives and of course the presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.

It is probably due to my background as a teacher that I was carried away by the speech of Kamala Haris’s running mate Mr Tim Walz who said, “do not underestimate a high school teacher”, referring to himself. That he chose to associate his meteoric rise and popularity to the fact that he was previously a teacher and not the military, where he also served, or that he was a long-serving governor of Minnesota State, says a lot about teaching. 

Furthermore, he states that, “my students saw in me what I was training them to be”. They urged him to contest for the governor’s position, and again, he attributed his victory to his teaching profession.

Influence and authority

This takes us back to what the former Prime Minister of United Kingdom Sir Winston Churchill said, that “headmasters have power at their disposal with which prime ministers have never yet been invested”.

So what is this power that teachers possess? Power consists of influence and authority. According to Eric Hoyle in his book The Politics of School Management, authority stems from the legal right to make decisions governing others while influence stems from the capacity to shape decisions by informal or non-authoritative means. 

It then becomes clear that teachers posses both authority and influence to push their missions unlike other professions that rely mainly on authority to get things done. In this region, former teachers; Julius Nyerere and John Magufuli of Tanzania as well as Daniel Moi of Kenya rose to become presidents in their countries mainly through influence.

Then we have had successful ministers, Members of Parliament and senior government officials who were able to handle their duties very well to the extent that people may not know that they were teachers. Environment Climate Change and Forestry Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale is an example, just as Mr Joseph Letting and Dr Sally Kosgei, who rose to the apex of the public service and served with distinction. We also have governors elected through their influence as teachers.

Terms and conditions of service

But it is the collective efforts of teachers that is more amazing. Whereas teachers agitated and used their influence to acquire the Teachers Service Commission as their employer 57 years ago, the police and the legislators acquired theirs barely 20 years ago and the medical practitioners are still agitating to have theirs established, unfortunately.

In addition, the teachers tend to be more successful in getting their terms and conditions of service improved through different forms of negotiations including strikes unlike, say, the medical practitioners. 

Teachers have also been successful in forming and managing Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies. Mwalimu National Teachers Sacco is the largest in Africa. Similarly the county-based teachers’ Saccos are the largest in the devolved units. Going forward, they may need to consider transferring their savings in commercial banks to their saccos as is the case in the USA for better benefits.

It is also noteworthy that three out of the five first ladies, and the current second lady were teachers, hence influence State matters to an extent that we may not know. Talk of the power of teachers and realise that Churchill and Walz were right. The young teachers should be assured that they are in the middle of big things. 

Mr Sogomo is an education expert and former Secretary, TSC. [email protected]; @Bsogomo