Country Reaps What Teachers Sow.

Written by Pio Sioa
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
The drain of teachers away from public schools and from the profession itself has been a worrying reality for more than a decade….it has not stopped. In fact, it may have gotten worse. So too has the beating of the warning drums…it has not stopped either. The shift of attitude away from teaching as a career choice has gathered a disturbing momentum in recent years. In very alarming terms, the teachers are leaving and are doing so in droves. The days of putting in the hard work for the love of teaching are over. So too is the pride of being a member of a noble profession. Job satisfaction is no longer enough….and so forth and so on. All of these commendable qualities have been out muscled by the perception, that teaching does not buy the teacher’s family the comforts, other better paying professions are doing. The facts are there for the teachers to see. Every time a car drives by, they can see who is behind the wheel. They walk past a nice house and they know who owns it. A crowd walks into a respected restaurant and they wonder how they can afford it. Suddenly the realization sinks in that they too can have those comforts. But a career as a teacher is not going to do it for them. Teachers too want a nice house for the family to live in. A car to move around freely. Good food rather than cheap cans of herrings and rice for most days of the week, except Sundays, is a healthy change. It does not help either when a teacher realizes that the work does not end in the classrooms. Lessons for a class of 40 plus children the next day, have to be prepared from home. Others may opt to spend extra hours in the classrooms to prepare. Whatever the options, the lack of quality time spend with the family will eventually take its toll. In the final analysis, the want-list for the family’s comfort, is weighed up against commitment and responsibilities to a teaching career. With the distressing number of teachers waving the profession goodbye, the growing choice is easy. Family first! Thank you SamoaTel. End of discussion. Big full stop! Bye bye classrooms! But this whole scenario has been trumpeted in public for a long time. The President of the Teachers Association, Gatoloai Ms. Tilianamua Afamasaga, will probably have callused hands to show for beating the warning drums these past years. She was one of many involved in the profession who saw the deterioration in number when it was only a trickle. Solutions to a problem of this urgency have been slow in coming, but then again it is understandable given its nation-wide reaches. The heart does smile to know a plan to address the situation is about to be submitted for Government approval, The fact also that Gatoloai was involved in the search for remedies, is reassuring. A lot of brain matter has obviously gone into finding ways and means to keep the teachers inside the classrooms. A better take home pay packet should be prominent in the incentive list. A clear and well-defined pathway up the career ladder should have retention powers as well. As long as teachers can see very clearly the career road to take for job promotion and a raise in salary, that too should help keep them in the profession longer. We will just have to wait and see what the plan holds. Planning is always good. But the key to success is in the application and the ability to sustain what has to be done. How often have we seen well-intentioned plans go awry? Okay so it does sound negative, but it helps at least to keep the decision makers off their complacency toes. The approval path the plan has to pass is not going to be a lazy stroll along the Apia seawall. There will be the usual time delaying refinements before it is finally given the stamp of approval. Whatever is required or how long it takes for the approval to come through, at the end of the day the plan has to work. The waste of time, energy and money is not important if the plan turns out to be a dud. The worry for Samoa is in the quality of education available inside the classrooms for our children. What you sow is what you reap Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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