OUR TEACHERS OUR FUTURE Presented by Daya Chetty

OUR TEACHERS, OUR FUTURE Presented by Daya Chetty South African Principal’s Association

INTRODUCTION • “From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the colour of their skin or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom. . . 2

• America’s future depends on its teachers. That is why we are taking steps to prepare teachers for their difficult responsibilities and encouraging them to stay in the profession. That is why we are creating new pathways to teaching and new incentives to bring teachers to schools where they are needed most. ” President Barack Obama 3

“Rosa Smith, former superintendant of the Columbus, Ohio, schools, had an epiphany one morning when she read some statistics about U. S. prison population. Some 75% of the prison population, she found, is Latino or African American, and 80% are functionally illiterate. She felt a new sense of purpose: Her work was no longer about teaching math or science, but about saving lives!” Alan M. Blankenstien/Michael Fullan – Failure is NOT an Option 4

TEACHER RETENTION AND TEACHER RETIREMENT Over the next twenty years, 280 000 teachers will retire, and 280 000 new teachers will be needed to take their place. This poses both an enormous challenge and an extraordinary opportunity for our education system: if we succeed in recruiting, preparing, and retaining great teaching talent, we can transform public education in this country and finally begin to deliver an excellent education for every child. What plans are in place to create succession? 5

WESTERN CAPE • More than 41% of permanent teachers and principals in the Western Cape will reach retirement age in the next 15 years. • Almost half of permanent teachers, heads of department, principals and their deputies, or around 11 600 people, were 50 or older, The Cape Times 15 May 2013 The figures were revealed by provincial education department human resources director Ivan Carolus in the provincial legislature on 14 May 2013 6

CURRENT STATISTICS source: Persal 7

TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMS • While there are many beacons of excellence, unfortunately some of our existing teacher training programs are not up to the job. They operate partially blindfolded, without access to data that tells them how effective their graduates are in primary and secondary school classrooms after they leave the teacher colleges/universities. 8

TEACHER RECRUITMENT Too many universities are not attracting top students, and they are not setting a high bar for entry into the profession. Critical shortage areas like science, technology, engineering, math, and special education are going unfilled. What are we going to do to ensure that quality students are attracted to the profession? 9

ONE SIZE FITS ALL APPROACH Too few teacher training and preparation programs offer the type of rigorous, clinical experience that prepares future teachers for the realities of today’s diverse classrooms. Principals and SGB’s who hire large numbers of new teachers, are frustrated at having to retrain new teachers for the challenges of their school type. 10

HIGH PREPARATION STANDARDS “We need to take the lead in recruiting and training teacher candidates. Let’s start by giving them the best preparation anyone could imagine on the front end, before they ever set foot in a classroom. Students need and deserve our best efforts and our best educators. ” Michael Fullan 11

TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS Research has shown that teachers are the most important school-based factor in determining student achievement. Comprehensive teacher effectiveness reform must include bringing accountability to teacher preparation. Jonathan Jansen We have to raise the bar for teacher preparation so that excellent programs and practices are the norm across our nation. 12

SOUTH AFRICA As a whole, South Africa is not following the lead of high-performing countries and recruiting the nation’s best and brightest into teaching. Our differences with other nations are not due to teacher preparation alone. We must do more to support and reward excellent teaching at various stages in the education system. However, we can do more in the area of preparation. 13

NOVICE TEACHER FEEDBACK More than three in five university students report that their institutions did not prepare them for “classroom realities. ” University lecturers don’t provide clinical support to improve classroom based teaching and challenges observed. Feedback is limited to the content or methodology rather than the practice. 14

STUDENT TEACHER DIVERSITY In a challenge that transcends any individual preparation teaching practice program, the teaching workforce does not reflect the diversity of the nation’s students, with a student body that is increasingly black. Our teachers need to reflect the demographics of the country in all schools. 15

ATTRITION RATE OF TEACHERS Teachers are leaving the education system due to inadequate support from school management teams. Lack of induction and support programs makes teachers feel inadequate and thus leave for better managed schools. Principals and SMT’s need training, support and mentorship to retain good teachers through well managed schools with systems. Report on Millenium development goals 16

A positive school climate, as Michael Fullan alluded to, includes building teacher commitment to the work in the school, creating a cohesive sense of direction and creating an organization in which people have high levels of job satisfaction. 17

ROLE OF TEACHER IN A SCHOOL Henry Von Dyke has said about teachers and teaching “Ah! There you have the worst paid and the best rewarded of vocations. Do not enter it unless you love it. For the vast majority of men and women it has no promise of wealth and fame, but they to whom it is dear for its own sake are among the nobility of mankind.

ROLE OF TEACHER IN A SCHOOL • The teacher is the yardstick that measures the achievements and aspirations of the nation. The worth and potentialities of a country get evaluated in and through the work of the teacher, “The people of a country are the enlarged replica of their teacher. ” They are the real nation builders. 19

ROLE OF TEACHER IN A SCHOOL • It needs no description that the teacher is the pivot of any educational system of the younger students. On him rests the failure or the success of the system. If the teachers are well educated and if they are intellectually alive and take keen interest in their job, then only, success is ensured. But, if on the other hand, they lack training in education and if they cannot give their heart to their profession, the system is destined to fail. Hence, the teacher is another vital component of the school. 20

ROLE OF TEACHER IN A SCHOOL • The teacher is a dynamic force of the school. A school without teacher is just like a body without the soul, a skeleton without flesh and blood, a shadow without substance. “There is no greater need for the cause of education today than the need for strong manly men and motherly women as teachers for the young”. As social engineers, the teachers can socialize and humanize the young by their man-like qualities 21

ROLE OF TEACHER IN A SCHOOL • “A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge, but merely repeats his lessons to his students can only load their minds. He can not quicken them” -- Tagore 22

ROLE OF TEACHER IN A SCHOOL • “Every teacher and educationist of experience knows that even the best curriculum and the most perfect syllabus remains dead unless quickened in to life by the right method of teaching and the right kind of teachers. ” -Secondary Education Commission • “The Teacher is the real maker of history. ” -- H. G. Wells 23

Essential Qualities of a Teacher • Teacher as a Role Model • Teacher’s Character • Teacher’s Personality • Teacher’s Mental Health • Teacher’s Physical Health • Teacher’s Social Adjustment • Teacher’s Professional Efficiency 24

Essential Qualities of a Teacher • Teacher’s Academic Achievements • Teacher’s Professional Training • “No one should ever be permitted to become a teacher of the young unless by temperament, attitudes and training, he is fitted to do so. ” • Teacher’s Accountability • Professional Ethics of Teachers 25

Each child is living the only life he has—the only one he will ever have. The least we can do is not diminish it. --Bill Page

One hundred years from now it will not matter What kind of car I drove, What kind of house I lived in, How much I had in the bank account, Or what my clothes looked like. But the world will be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.