Debo Popoola
In Nigeria, the teaching profession used to be one of the most revered and respected professions in the world; in fact, its nobility was second to the clergy. Teachers, like Pastors, were seen as next to the Devine because they were seen as shapers of destinies. Every success achieved by a person was traced to the teachers that taught him or her while in school.
But unfortunately, the story has changed as teaching is now seen as a profession practiced by those who could not get a job in big, corporate companies. Added to the current scorn being vested on teachers is the government’s debasing treatment of them. Majority of teachers in many states of the federation are being owed several months of salaries by their governments and many have resorted to per time jobs to augment their incomes.
Recently, Dr Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, revealed that not all youths in the country would receive the promised N5,000 monthly allowance promised by the government. He said this on Tuesday, at an event held to mark the 5th anniversary of Bina Foundation and graduation ceremony of its students in Enugu. Ngige said that the administration plans to make most of the jobless graduates in the country teachers in a bid to tackle massive graduate unemployment.
But teaching is such a profession that is driven by interest and desire. In fact, some has seen it as a calling, a sort of divine assignment given to an individual by God.
In the developed world, teachers are well paid and trained; not every Tom, Dick and Harry is allowed to become a teacher. It was a strict profession where only those who are driven by the interest and passion to impact knowledge are inducted into the profession.
The reason why teaching is such a restricted profession in the developed world is that, it is believed that whatever knowledge impacted into a child influences the lifestyle of that child in future; that is, the behavior of an adult today can be easily traced to what he was taught as child. So that children are not bombarded with falsified knowledge, teachers are well scrutinized before they are inducted. But in this part of the world, teaching has become the last resort for whoever wants to teach as there is no thorough scrutiny.
The recent plan by the Federal Government somehow put a dent on the teaching profession in Nigeria. It can be inferred that this plan by government is a palliative measure for the problem of unemployment, teaching being the instrument of palliation. So, millions of graduates roaming the street will be forced into the teaching profession and the government will be less concerned whether they have the passion to teach or not.
Then we can say that the students that will taught by these recruits are the unfortunate ones as they might be loaded with wrong teachings by passionless teachers who only became teachers because their government could not provide other jobs than teaching for them.
