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Guy Mulvaney
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Moving Tributes Paid to Our Teachers at World Teachers Day |
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Alexander the Great paid tribute to his teacher some 2400 years ago by commenting that he was 'indebted to his father for living, but to his teacher for living well' This acknowledgement was echoed when tributes were paid to our teachers by leading organisations and academics at the World Teachers’ Day Conferenceunder
the theme- ‘Optimizing Teacher Potential’ at the Commonwealth Secretariat Headquarters at Marlborough House in London on Thursday 5th October.
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In his opening address –the Secretary General- Hon. Don Mcinnon- underlined the colossal challenges that Commonwealth States were facing. He outlined that there is a universal shortage of educators and that the problem was compounded by the fact that different countries faced different challenges.
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He specifically made reference to the South African context -two years agowhen 4000 teachers died of Aids and that a further 21000 left the country for overseas classrooms.
The keynote speaker of the day- Steve Sinnot- the charismatic President of the NUT-and one of Britain’s leading figures in education paid homage Commonwealth teachers. In a wide ranging and forceful speech, he remarked that teachers “are making an invaluable contribution. Without them many of our schools would have
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Several themes emerged throughout the day. What was of particular concern were the frustrations and anger that were vented by Caribbean teachers who felt discriminated against, under undervalued and under represented at middle and senior management level in British schools. They also spoke about problems of qualifications equivalency and the part UK NARIC plays in reinforcing their basic position and status.
Another theme which emerged was the issue of implementation of protectionist legislation-called the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol- which was adopted in 2004 to regulate and control the recruitment of teachers in Commonwealth countries.
Unfortunately this policy is experiencing several serious ‘teething’ problems at this stage as there is no tangible evidence that any of the source countries are enforcing these empowering regulations which protect their teacher workforce from exploitation.
The working group dealing with this topic made appeals for the relaunch of the Protocol across the entire Commonwealth to all stakeholders. Source countries were strongly urged to regulate, control, police and to monitor the movement of their teachers as well as the actions of overseas recruiters in their countries.
They were strongly urged by the working group to make use of the system of clearance certificates. This will ensure that teachers from feeder countries are not leaving during term time and therefore are not disrupting pupils learning.
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Tribute must be paid to the Commonwealth Secretariat and the NUT - in particular to Hon. Don Mcinnon, Steve Sinnot, Ann Keeling, Dr Henry Kaluba, and Dr Roli Degazon Johnson for the invaluable support, encouragement and professional development that they are affording our educators.
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