The progress of education has many facets, all of which are important. It is laudable to put up school buildings, which are essential in the promotion of education. Another even more important aspect is the training of teachers to enable them to meet what is expected of them. Their training has to be sustained and ongoing. We have to bear in mind that educational approaches can be kaleidoscopic, i.e. ever demanding new approaches in the light of developing circumstances.

Gone are those days when teacher education was a once-and-for-all concept. Remember the days, half a century ago, when teachers were trained for two years at the then Teacher’s Training College. They were then employed in primary schools for the rest of their professional careers without any further training, until their retirement. No facilities or opportunities were considered for their improvement. But this cannot be termed teachers’ education.

The tendency of those teachers- of course they are not to be blamed was to promote a style of education in class that has obviously become outdated as well as irrelevant. In other words, education soon became fossilised. We sometimes say that a teacher can commit a blunder and get away with it. But it can lead to the destruction of minds and the murdering teacher has left no visible fingerprint behind – the teacher all the time full of devotion, believing that whatever he is imparting to the children is education. The fault lies, not in the traditional teacher, but in the very system existing in education.

The desire for a balanced approach

Subjectwise, it is desirable that the system of education in a country provides for a well-balanced education for school-goers. There should be a panoply of subjects within the curriculum, as well as in extra curricular activities to promote the welfare of the schoolchildren so that they can be well-equipped to face adult life. It is desirable that, if at one time, more concentration should be focused on certain subjects, say science and technology, steps are taken accordingly. However, we have to see to it that no subject that contributes to development, personal or national, is left out.

If we are not careful, the result can gradually become disastrous. I have personally noticed that students are not so interested in the Arts, Literature and so on, as subjects in their educational venture. It is proposed, at the moment, that we concentrate on encouraging science subjects among our students. It would be desirable to find out whether there is any form of imbalance, so that adjustments can be made. Any neglect in terms of subject priorities, however small, can have far-reaching consequences.

A flexible agent

The role of the teacher is to be the facilitating agent in class and at school in general in the joint endeavour of promoting a sound education for learners. There is today a slim place for the traditional authoritarian approach of the past, when the rate of change and progress in society was slow, so that the established approach to education was satisfactory to our needs. Whereas today the rate of change in society is so fast and unpredictable that it demands skills of a different nature from our educators. Like the oarsman, should the teacher relax effort in the right direction for a while, the result can only be educational backsliding. Today’s teaching requirements and style are or should be, in most cases, different from those of yesterday. At the same time, one can guess that tomorrow’s approach in education will be different from today’s. The teacher should therefore be equipped with a resilient mind, capable of fending for himself in the light of ever-changing circumstances. He should be a versatile teacher, with the ability to initiate novel methods of approach during his interventions with learners.

The days during which the training of teachers was a once-and-for-all concept are long gone. The imparting of ready-made factual knowledge in the teacher education programme to be used by the teacher in his career, can be termed anachronistic. The teacher today should be equipped with the ability to be inventive in his approach to school learning without falling into the trap of simply imparting ready-made knowledge for the examination room.

If the above deliberations are acceptable, then a considerable review of the education of teachers would be the source of a better education for the world of tomorrow. The education of teachers is therefore a moving target, with the urgent need for a constant effort to sustain the opportunity to review its needs. This demands the establishment of real situations in which teachers can be given access to what will contribute to their professional betterment : exposure to proper libraries and latest publications of an international nature, within the field of the teaching profession the ongoing provision of teacher education programmes whereby the teacher can appreciate the sustained nature of educational change, to adjust accordingly. Conferences and seminars within the country, to enable teachers to share and brainstorm, to result in desirable consensus and conclusions to be put into practice in schools. Only then, can the hard and fast approaches crumble down, to make place for more progressive ones in education. The school teaching practice by teachers has to be under the observation of both practising teachers and supervisors. This is to be done on an ongoing basis so that the very teachers and students, as well as everyone else can only benefit from the venture. We here ascertain that supervisors or inspectors should be given a new meaning and role. They should be viewed as professionals who are partners of class teachers rather than coming over, as the older concept goes, to catch the teachers in their weaknesses and be negative in their criticism – which has unfortunately almost always been the case. A collection of the joint findings of teachers, supervisors and inspectors can then be used as subjects of discussions in seminars to find the right solutions.

The teacher educator

The education of the teacher educator should also be of prime importance. Without the constant exposure of teacher educators to novel educational issues, all school teaching can only collapse like a pack of cards. Improvements to the education of teacher educators have too long been neglected.

It has always been believed that the knowledge of teacher educators is as it should be. However ways and means have to be devised to constantly update the education of teacher educators. Otherwise, all cannot be well in our education system. If we agree that the future of our schools lies on the shoulders of good teachers, then our priority target should be the availability of good teachers. This can be done only through the existence of good teacher educators.

Andre WAN CHOW WAH Associate professor