dyton mupawaenda
Elton Gomori-Youth Interactive Correspondent
Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in paying homage to teachers as they were celebrated on Thursday October 5, a day declared as World Teachers’ Day.
In the field of academia, many institutions in elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels punctuated the day with flowers, poetry, story-telling, musical performances, skits, presents, and many gestures that hail teachers as vital cogs in positively influencing humanity and civilisation.
This year, World Teachers’ Day ran under the theme ‘‘The teachers we need for the education we want: the imperative to reverse the teacher shortage,” and it was topical amongst teachers, not only that, the theme is technically twofold in nature and nurture.
It speaks to the ‘teachers we need’ in both substance and quantity.
Given that Zimbabwe has made leaps and bounds in providing sufficient teachers for its citizenry through many teachers’ colleges and universities dotted across the length and breadth of our lovely kettle-shaped country; it is of paramount importance to place much attention and focus on the teachers we want in terms of character and substance.
As we discuss and dissect issues around the teachers we want.
It is of prime importance to tattoo at the back of our minds that this is not an academic discourse that concerns only teachers, lecturers, and instructors at formal institutions of learning but the discussion cascades down to parents as teachers on the periphery of the family unit which is the primary socialisation entity.
Parents are our first teachers and the moment we talk about educational policies and processes without considering them, we would have missed the mark by a country mile.
So, parents are part of the teachers we want.
In sundry times past, the teachers were expected to facilitate reading, writing and arithmetic.
Back then, education or the socialisation process largely involved panning information and assisting learners to memorise, store and regurgitate information in an examination.
What was considered important back then was the supremacy of academic grades, there was great bias on theory at the dire expense of skills development.
Such a scenario failed to make institutions of learning a microcosm of society and real-world learners would find themselves in after years of formal learning.
Today, educational outcomes and the world after formal schooling demand far more and for those demands to be met the ‘teachers we want’ in terms of quality should be realised.
And so as we celebrate World Teachers Day this week, it is incumbent upon teachers and parents alike to find themselves engaged in a transformative process that results in them becoming the teachers we want in the 21st century, ready to churn out a crop of young people who are solution providers to the problems of the contemporary society.
The world has evolved into a global village.
This implies that in as much as the teachers we want should foster patriotism and the preservation of our rich cultural heritage, they should also seek to provide a conducive environment for learners to become competent world citizens during and after formal learning.
To do that there is a need for a paradigm shift to the 5 C’s which are critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration and leadership as well as character.
These skills are better demanded in today’s labour market and entrepreneurial spaces than merely good academic grades.
Having said that, beyond literacy and numeracy, the teachers we want should place prime value on activities like sports, debate, public speaking, arts and theatre and discipline.
They should model and inculcate in learners the ability and agility to work well with others toward the attainment of a shared vision and personal goals and objectives.
Today’s world is profoundly technological and digital.
The teachers we want at both the domestic and scholarly front should diligently consider exposing learners to modern research facilities, coding, and robotics from a very tender age so that they become tech-savvy.
ICTs are both the hot buns of the present and future.
It is only through having the teachers we want that we can create the Zimbabwe, Africa and the world we all want. Through rethinking and re-wiring teaching and learning, we brace ourselves for the advancement of the human race.
The writer, Elton Gomori, is a teacher and public speaking coach at Nattie Junior School in Harare.
Online Reporter