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INLSA<\/p>\n
Vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen<\/p>\n
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Leading educationists have thrown their weight behind the country\u2019s teachers and the importance of instilling an education culture in SA that recognises the profession\u2019s worth. <\/p>\n
While October 5 was declared World Teachers\u2019 Day by the UN, some schools have opted to observe the day this week, after returning from holiday. <\/p>\n
\u201cA significant step in improving education would be to value teachers, and to support them in their work,\u201d visiting adjunct professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Mary Metcalfe, said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur teachers are our greatest asset as we strive to improve the quality of education,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Metcalfe believes that the \u201cgreat majority\u201d of teachers continue to seek to make a difference under difficult conditions. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur concern to improve education must translate into supportive action that helps schools move away from failure and underperformance, and recognises the central role of teachers in achieving quality education for all,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, while addressing the Education Management Association of SA conference, Metcalfe cited focus group research from KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, which revealed that \u201cteachers felt they must deliver miracles\u201d in the context of material shortages, pupil overcrowding and curriculum changes. <\/p>\n
Vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, said the reason governments spent the largest portion of their education budgets on teachers was that without them, effective learning would cease. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite new technologies, teachers are irreplaceable when it comes to providing high quality education to all children,\u201d Jansen continued. <\/p>\n
It then stood to reason that if teachers failed to deliver on their mandate \u2013 to teach and care for children \u2013 there was a crisis. Jansen also highlighted the multiple roles teachers had to play in the SA context. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn poor communities, teachers are not only providers of instruction, they are forced to be social workers, counsellors, motivators and more as they provide for the complex needs of children from broken homes and challenged communities.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kenneth King, Emeritus Professor in the School of Education, and the School of |Social and Political Sciences at Scotland\u2019s University of Edinburgh, said that, when a culture existed where teachers were respected (and well remunerated), it afforded that country \u201ca huge advantage\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said that having a high level of expectation from all pupils was also essential. <\/p>\n
Schools affiliated to the Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools (Fedsas) will celebrate their teachers on October 12. Besides wanting pupils to realise the \u201cdetermining role\u201d teachers can play in their lives, Fedsas has also encouraged older generations to get in touch with a beloved teacher, or visit their old school. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen Leading educationists have thrown their weight behind the country\u2019s teachers and the importance of instilling an education culture in SA that recognises the profession\u2019s worth. While October 5 was declared World Teachers\u2019 Day by the UN, some schools have opted to observe the day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-15456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}