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What I will do if I am a teacher -By Michael Omisore

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Michael Omisore

Michael Omisore

 

I am hooked. I have fallen in love with a thankless vocation. I have chosen a profession not so appreciated in my part of the world. Teaching, it is called. In other parts of the world, my fellow professionals are treated like gods, but here in Nigeria, we are several levels below such reality. So trampled upon is the profession that it has lost its attraction. The discrimination against teaching has been right from my own school days. Students in the Faculty of Education are seen as low class compared to those of other faculties. Colleges of education are paid little attention, after all, they don’t produce doctors, lawyers and engineers. They produce graduates that are considered second or third rates though they are the ones that will teach the future professionals in all fields, as if that is nothing.

The remuneration attached to the teaching job for basic and secondary education is pathetically low. While I like what I do, I do not like what I get. The take home can barely take one home. Even our colleagues in the civil service get better pay and benefits than us teachers. Aside from remuneration, the value and worth that ought to accompany the job are no longer there. Teaching is at the bottom of the list of professions in terms of accrued rewards. And some people will come around and say that the reward of teachers is in heaven. What a malicious statement, a half-truth that rubs in the pain the more.

The worst deal is that one can barely see a career path. If I have given 10 years to teaching and I am still more or less at the same point I started, just working the routine of classroom duties from term to term, what makes me think I would have really advanced 10 years from now? This is really my fear, feeding my demotivation. I can hardly focus on this job. While some of my mates in other professions are already doing so well, I am yet to really find my bearing in career building and money-making all because I chose teaching, or teaching chose me because of no other choice on my part.

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What will I do? How can I really make it as a teacher? How can I on this job have both sides of the success coin, which are fulfilment and prosperity? Certain steps are necessary, but before then, I have to accept the existing realities: That I may not be rich or well to do overnight on the teaching job. That I may have to be contented with low pay while I am working at building my career. That I may have to find fulfilment in the value of my contribution rather than the value of my returns until the returns catch up later with the contribution as I commit to the steps to be highlighted. That I have to take personal responsibility for my success as a teacher rather than wait for my employer to perform magic.

The first step to be highlighted is building proficiency. Could it be that my current low esteem for myself and my job is a reflection of the little or no personal development I have made towards being an efficient professional as a teacher? Could it be that what I am getting is what I attract? The fact is, excellence speaks. And it is all a matter of choice. I can join other teachers in trading blames about the system, but I can also albeit alone rise above mediocrity through training to learn, unlearn and relearn facts, building core competence and adhering to best practices no matter what.

The parents of my students will begin to value me the more for my extra work and giving more attention to certain details that other teachers don’t give attention to. As a result, I can get a well-paying home lesson job to augment my income or I can be recommended for a better paying job in teaching. Aside from my immediate environment, the world is a global village now and if I can’t find needed excellence around me, I can visit places I have never been through the internet to find out more about the discipline of teaching and derive applicable and adaptable knowledge for my current position and level.

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As I gain proficiency and core competence, I definitely will have knowledge to share. And what a time to be born where that is concerned. I can, free of charge, be my own broadcaster and publisher reaching an audience far wider than my contact and reach through the social media. I will be strategic about this, choosing one or two social media platforms that work for me, and begin to pass across knowledge in the area of my built competence. Soon, if I keep at it, I begin to get noticed. I begin to gain and gather audience all over the world. While this may not necessarily generate or translate to money in the short run, it is definitely a good capital for the long haul, one that is bound to yield ultimately. In the meantime, on the way to that yield, I can derive great fulfilment in the lives I am touching all over. Even my so-called mates that are doing so well in other fields seeing my efforts and results on social media will start according me honour and respect. Being a teacher doesn’t mean my head should be down, does it?

As I continue to share knowledge, like excellent minds out of the general audience will start getting attracted to me and I will have opportunity to build a network. Who knows? I can end up teaming up with one or two proficient teachers like me to author the next great textbook on our subject, or start a tutorial class, while I am still faithful to my employer. I can together with such like minds form an advocacy group to tackle one of the ills regarding education in the country. I can work on projects on my field that may need to be supported here and there by my built network for it to come to fruition. Bottom line, opportunities will begin to open up due to my diligence in building proficiency and core competence, sharing knowledge and building network, and I will be there to take those opportunities.

If I am a teacher and I know I ought to be one because it is my line, I will do my best to shrug off all the discouragement of today because of low pay and appreciation. I will begin to find fulfilment in my work and its results on my way to my handsome reward on earth here strategically targeted at. It may take a decade or two to fully arrive at such an enviable destination. It definitely will not happen overnight and things may not probably go exactly as highlighted in this piece, but there has to be a bright career path in teaching and I must be ready to beat the bushes to tread it.

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Omisore, an education consultant, based in Lagos wrote in via mdomisore@yahoo.com

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