Unqualified teachers doing damage to children’s future – Principal

by Sodiq Oyeleke - PUNCH

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Principal, Faith Academy, Lagos, Mr. Olusola Bamidele, has said the major challenge affecting the standard of education in the country is the use of unqualified teachers to train pupils.

Bamidele wondered why a school would employ pupils to teach pupils, noting that schools engaging in such acts are toying with the future of the children and the country.

He spoke after the school’s 12th inter-house sports competition, which was declared open by  the wife of Delta State Governor, Mrs. Roli Uduaghan.

He said, "Teachers in many schools are not well trained. Some schools keep Senior Secondary Certificate Examination graduates, some of whom did not even pass the examination in classes to teach pupils and this is unfortunate because the foundation matters a lot. The foundation is where you should pack the best of all brains to teach the pupils.

"If you call somebody a teacher, he/she must know more than the learner. For you to be able to teach the right values to the children, you must also be sound. The teachers are to train the children. If the teachers are not trained then they will not be able to train others.

 They can only teach what they know. What they don’t know they cannot teach. For you to have a child that is fully equipped under the educational system, the teacher must be trained and retrained.”

He explained that it was necessary for teachers to be regularly trained for the educational system to develop and meet international standards.

He added, "Teachers must continuously undergo training even while on the job. The educational system should not be developed in a way that a child will be taught how to read and write alone, it must be built in a way that the children can learn, relearn and unlearn. In our school, we develop education along three major areas – academic, religion/moral and creativity.

"Education should be a complete package that would enhance self reliance. For instance, when you see pupils dressing indecently, it means there is a problem. Then, schools must initiate a disciplinary method to stop it.”

The principal, who lamented the decreasing standard of education, argued that the challenges of insecurity facing the country could be solved if the educational system was developed.

He said, "You cannot see any graduate that knows his/her worth being recruited for illegal acts. The type of education we give to the children has a way of either enhancing insecurity or helping security.  You can imagine that many schools don’t even have equipment to teach the pupils and that is why they engage in examination malpractices. We should give our children the best we can and show them good examples.

"The basis of any educational system is to teach morals and competency. When you have graduates that cannot speak correct English and are incompetent, nobody can employ them which makes them idle and participate in bad activities.”