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Embrace tuition to empower teachers?BUP_DFT_DFT-12-14Schools and teachers function in an extremely competitive environment where every parent aspires for the best for their children and the best is measured by success at examinations
Wednesday, 7 October 2015logoFifth of October was World Teacher
Education Day as declared by the UN. The theme for 2015 is
empowering teachers. In its joint communique with the ILO, UNESCO
expresses its deep concern about the persisting challenges brought
about by (1) teacher shortages and (2) the low status of teachers
at all levels of education5.
Sri Lanka does not have a shortage of teachers. During the past
decade our student to teacher ratios has been at a respectable at
18:1. However, lack of respect for teachers is a major issue in Sri
Lanka. In this article I argue that dominance of skilled tuition
masters outside of the school is a major reason for lowered status
of teachers in Sri Lankan society today.
I propose that we should decouple the school curriculum from the
national examination content and allow teachers to educate the
whole child during school hours, with tuition providers teaching
after school for exam success. A voucher system or similar should
be in place to help the needy with the tuition costs.
Lowered status of teachers in Sri Lanka and the world
In Sri Lanka, teaching is seen as an easy place to park unemployed
graduates irrespective of their suitability for teaching children.
Politicians walk into school and threaten teachers. Education
officials act like zamindaris. Worst of all, teachers who produce a
few winners at public examinations are adulated while those who
work to develop the whole child as expected of an educationist are
ignored. Worst, tuition masters who are better at preparing
students exam are revered above all.
In a 2015 report titled Rethinking education: towards a global
common good, UNESCO reports that the latest trends show a continued
de-professionalisation or a lack of recognition of teachers as
professionals at all levels. The agency recommends that we ensure
that teachers and educators are empowered, adequately recruited,
well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported
within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed
systems.
One cannot argue with these recommendations, but, how do we get
there is the question. The report goes on to identify austerity
measures and poor accountability as the overarching reasons for low
status of teachers, but, ground reality suggest otherwise.
Prevalence of tuition is the elephant in the roo3m
Sadly, the analysis of UN in regard to the low status of teachers
is off the mark. The aspirational definition of a school according
to the 1996 Delors Report of UNESCO is a place where one learns to
know, to do, to be and to live together, the four pillars of
learning. Essentially the school is supposed to be a place where
you develop the whole child, not just a place to impart knowledge
and skills.
However, as the 2015 UNESCO report notes the four pillars of
learning are fundamentally under threat in the context of current
societal challenges, and particularly the pillars of learning to be
and to live together, which best reflect the socialisation function
of education.
The reasons are largely external, I believe, not financial or
administrative, as UNESCO suggests. Schools and teachers function
in an extremely competitive environment where every parent aspires
for the best for their children and the best is measured by success
at examinations. Private tuition providers are better at preparing
children for exams. The UN or policy makers at the national level
view tuition as a mere nuisance, but, it is a defining attribute of
modern education.
Examinations-driven education is not going to go away any time
soon. In Finland and other European countries children may not be
under pressure to perform at examinations, but, the reasons are
deeply embedded in the socio-cultural values of those
societies.
The USA is struggling to incorporate standardised test to into its
highly decentralised and unique form of education. Countries in
Asia, in contrast, have embraced and thrived on examination-based
education systems.
In Sri Lanka, the Central School system of the fifties was able to
give a holistic education with exam success as one component. With
increased participation of the population in schooling, public
examinations have become more competitive and schools have slipped
in their responsibility to educate the whole child in face of
pressures to teach for exams.
Teachers are not trained to teach for exams. Examinations today
require intensive coaching to be provided by specialists. Even in a
well-funded education system such as South Korea, almost all
students continue their studies after school in tuition classes
which are famously known as Hagwons. That is the reality.fgj
Teaching for examination success and teaching to develop the whole
child cannot co-exist
Tuition is viewed by parents as an evil necessity and by
policymakers as a social ill to be eradicated. On the part of
policymakers it is a losing battle. IN Korea, for example,
education authorities have resigned themselves to the necessity of
Hagwons and now focus on limiting their operations 10 p.m.
However, there is still the wide-spread hope that better funding,
better training etc. will make schools more competitive and parents
will have no reason send their children to a second private session
which essentially cover the same material in the school
curriculum.
Policy makers are hoping against hope, I believe. It is time to
accept the reality that teaching for examination success and
teaching to develop the whole child are two different objectives
that cannot co-exist.
School curriculum should be decoupled from the examination
curriculum
Even with a school culture which is preoccupied with examinations,
we still have 50% of so of our youth leaving school without a GCE
(O/L) certificate. By all indications students fail the O/L because
they do not have the basic reading and mathematical skills which
should have been acquired in prior grades.
What we need is a curriculum and a school-based assessment system
that brings ALL the children up to a certain standard in regard to
a basic knowledge and skills set (through learning to know and
learning to do) and personal and citizen competencies (through
learning to be and learning to live together).
Currently the school curriculum covers an astounding breadth of
material because they have to cover the material required in the
national examinations. The result is that those who pass the exams
prove that they know a bunch of facts and those who fail have
nothing to show for their time in school.
The school curriculum needs to change from being extensive to
intensive. School time should be devoted to going deep into
selected topics where students learn through activities, labs and
field trips so that students become critical thinkers, innovators
and acquire other attributes which studying for exams do not give.
Teaching for examinations would be an optional activity that is
included after completing the core program during regular school
hours.
We already have such a system in practice, but children learn the
same material twice. Children facing Grade 5, Grade 11 or Grade 13
typically rush to tuition classes to learn the same material they
covered in school. What a waste? Why not do something different at
school. Schools have the labs, playgrounds and more space than
tuition providers. Why not use them by introducing an
activity-based student centered curriculum which does not
necessarily follow the examination syllabus?
Teachers should be recognised andrewarded for developing the whole
child
Teachers are empowered when they provide a service that others
without their training could not. If the time at school is devoted
to activity-based learning which are aimed to give the students a
range personal and citizen competencies, it is an education which
both families and society benefit in the long run.
Performance measures will no longer be based on success of students
at public examinations. The responsibility of the teacher would be
to ensure that each and every child receives the basic knowledge,
skills and attitudes needed to function in society. There are
already methods to assess and reward teachers in that regard. More
on that later.
Vouchers for needy families to cover tuition costs; overtime pay
for teachers
According to the Household Income and Expenditure survey, families
already pocket out a significant amount of money for tuition. If
after school tuition is recognised as being necessary for passing
the national examinations, schools can provide top up classes for
students. The teachers should be paid should be paid overtime for
their services. Schools could combine their efforts to pick the
best teachers to give after school tuition.
If parents feel their children need to be more competitive they
would be free to send their children to private tuition classes
with the Government including a tuition subsidy for deserving
parents. This way the whole education process will not be corrupted
by an examination system where intense competition to get to the
top has made intensive coaching an imperative.Posted byThavam