What the teaching industry needs

RWANDA early this week proudly joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Teachers’ Day. The teachers in different schools felt fulfilled to go out and celebrate the annual event with joy. Teachers get courage when their importance is recognised worldwide. Teachers’ Day is a day where teachers come together to forgive, reconcile and come to a common understanding, and to check their future. Teachers have the mandate to advocate for their welfare. This calls for the need to have a well-laid programme where they are invited and their problems looked into.Sensitisation and refresher courses are very vital. A challenging threat to the education system is that teachers don’t get sufficient inspection. All teachers need to be supervised for quality service delivery. This is because they are one of the greatest asset for national development. One of the problems addressed was the need to recruit female teachers in schools. The ratio of male to female teachers in schools is so alarming. Girls miss out a lot since they need mentoring from people who have lived their experience. Accommodation for teachers within or close to the school is also lacking. Those who don’t reside at school come late and when it rains they will not turn up. It is worth noting that the teaching profession has increasingly become less attractive to the youth. Teaching is regarded and portrayed as a low calibre job where it is taken as a last resort. Teachers complained about little pay compared to the standard of living that is very high. That aside, there is a slowdown in the payments where they never get the salaries on time. Teachers need to form associations countrywide, as this will boost the bond between themselves as well as catering for their problems and finding solutions to them. Challenges should not wait for teachers’ days to be brought to light. It seems all the problems had piled up and if there were no such a day, they would never be addressed. The author is a teacher at Kagarama secondary schoolshebs10@yahoo.com