Memo To Parents And Schools On How To Identify A Bad Teacher

Please make sure you read this if you have a ward in school.

The Teachers’ Refresher/Award Programme convened, last week Tuesday, by Mrs. Foluso Atilola, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Covenant Education Consultancy (CEC), the Lagos-based educational consulting firm that organises refresher and development courses for teachers, high school and life-after-high-school/annual school owners and principal officers summits and overseas education and cultural tours, was meant to celebrate teachers as part of the activities marking the World Teachers’ Day.

But it ended up being also a moment of heart-to-heart talks with participating teachers drawn from various schools in Lagos, on what it takes to be an effective teacher that can hold their heads and shoulders high anywhere they go and also a memo to parents and schools on how to identify a good teacher.

Speaking at the event on the topic 'The Branded Teacher – the Pride of 21st Century’.  Prof. Ngozi Osarenren, former Commissioner of Education in Edo State and today, Head, Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos (UNILAG), who was the guest speaker said:

“You know, most of us don’t know what we have,” she explained. “A teacher affects eternity. If you have been teaching in the last five years, I am sure you wont be able to count the number of children that you have taught. And, some of them, you do not even know where they are. And, if you have been able to make an impact on them, they will always remember you. 

When I came into this hall, two people ran to hug me and told me I was their teacher, and for me, that is the greatest reward I can get  – that your former student would see you and would want to greet you. As a teacher you can never tell where your influence can reach. And, I never knew that I would meet these two people in this hall today.

While commenting on the characteristics of best and worst teachers, one of the sub-topics of her lecture. “For those of us that know UNILAG very well, there are so many schools around and most times, I would put on jeans and a shirt and be walking around and be chatting with students. From my discussion, it turned out that the students consider as their best teachers ones that make the class interesting; that have a good grasp or knowledge of their subjects and explain concepts clearly; that do not, at any time, show favouritism but are fair to all the students and that spend time to help the students. Above all, they are considerate of students’ feelings.

“And, what do we have as the worse teachers?  The worse teachers are dull and have a boring class; they don’t explain things clearly. They have a poor attitude to work; they show favouritism; they don’t give help and individual attention to students and they don’t relate well to students; they also lack self-control.”

She charged the teachers present to ask themselves: where do I belong? Am I one of the best teachers or am I one of the worst? And, if perhaps, they have some of the characteristics of worst teachers, since they are celebrating us, today should be your turning point, to stop being one of the worst teachers and become one of the best teachers.

“When I talk about the teacher effectiveness, I normally say something that I heard from one of my Profs. who talks about educationeering, a term many of you may not be familiar with.

He said that a trained teacher is not necessarily a qualified teacher, a qualified teacher is not necessarily a competent teacher, a competent teacher is not necessarily an efficient teacher, and an efficient teacher is not necessarily an effective teacher. And, when we say this, people often wonder what we are talking about. When you say a teacher is trained that means that teacher had undergone the prescribed teacher education programmes.

 These are all the courses that those that have studied education are supposed to do. If that person had done that, he or she is a trained teacher. But when you now have somebody that had undergone all  that teacher education programme and successfully completed it and is certified, you say that he or she is a qualified teacher. But a competent teacher, in addition to undergoing all prescribed teacher education programmes, needs to be an efficient teacher. An efficient teacher is the person that will apply all those principles of teaching and learning. But the teacher that is of interest to us, the branded teacher, the teacher of 21st century, is the effective teacher. This is the teacher that applies those principles that an efficient teacher has been applying, but in a more creative way and in so doing ensure that students learning is maximized.

-Edited from The Sun

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The speaker made salient points on how to identify a bad teacher, but there are more ways of identifying them. So would you like to add?

Do you have any good/bad teacher experiences to share?