Chigozie NwabunwanneTeachers are oracles of knowledge but looking at our environment today and the university in particular, we tend to ask ourselves if they are really doing their best. If the answer is positive, then the following questions should be ‘Is their best good enough?’ It is speculative to conclude that many in the profession are there for employment not for the love of the prestigious profession.
Teachers are great, no controversies. They are the forgers of men and men are forged with discipline, kindness, and love, but sadly the teachers in the highest institution of the educational system in Nigeria are no respecter of that fact.
There, a forger of men or a light bearer enters a two-hour class and spends one hour thirty minutes preaching the gospel and when done with the crusade, spends the remaining thirty minutes in reading from a textbook, while students, in turn, ‘robotically’ write down every word in the textbook they were forced to buy.
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There, the forgers of men are free to skip classes and squeeze the students with heavy workloads before the exam. Intentionally preventing students from asking questions in class by roasting the brave inquisitive ones who dare to question them, thereby, forcing others to keep the curiosity to themselves. They resort to a deceitful method of teaching; giving an area of concentration and setting exam questions contrary to that, to bring more customers back the next year. Forcing students to buy materials and threatening to cancel their records if they refuse to comply. Telling stories far away from the class subject matter while giving questions that are core to the topic in the examination. The annoying attitude of comparing intelligence to memorization, is like saying,” Pain tolerance is proportional to physical strength”. The courage to look into the students’ eyes and tell them to come back next year, even though the student has not written any test not to speak of examination. Albert Einstein is quoted to have said, “If you keep judging an elephant by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life thinking it’s stupid.”
Another popular physicist, Richard Feymann is quoted to have said: “If you cannot explain a subject you claim to understand to a six-year-old, then you truly did not understand the subject.” Sadly, the method of teaching some teachers use keeps a twenty-year-old in wonderland not to talk of a six-year-old.
But these poor-performing teachers are not to be compared with the God-sent minority in the fold, who take on their herculean task even with their meager pay. They never skip classes, never force students to buy their books and make the class a discussion class and completely interactive.
The honorable practitioners of this noble profession are not motivated by different reasons. First, the students. Many moronic students, believe in the popular slogan ‘’school na scam” and are in the university for an ‘only God knows reason’. They refuse to attend classes and dress in ways that prove they are deficient in culture, discipline, and character.
Secondly, poor pay. The government should play their part by increasing our teachers’ pay. It is the apex of injustice that a senator earns ₦36 million monthly while his teacher, a builder of men earns ₦170,000 monthly. A teacher under that kind of pay in this terrible period will definitely find other ways to sustain the family: selling textbooks (forcefully), demanding money for a pass, finding another business; thereby reducing dedication or even ‘japa’ in some extreme cases.
The 21st century has brought a lot of mockery and condescending remarks to this noble profession. Now teachers are seen as wicked people, old students ignore their teachers outside school, and teachers are seen as people who dress sardonically. They are mocked for dedicating their lives to serve humanity, but those ridiculous comments can never change the fact that teachers are light bearers, fountains of knowledge, pinnacle of understanding, guardians of knowledge, sages of learning, the guiding light, and the pointing fingers. Good teachers must be respected, honored, and rewarded for their selfless lives and may their sacrifice yield great fruits in the future.
