Making teaching profession attractive

A huge number of students are failing to master the desired competency due to a flawed teaching system, observes the World Bank (The Daily Star, May 10, 2014). How degrading a statement for us, teachers! Where the government is digitizing classrooms, encouraging teachers to utilise internet facilities like 'Shikkhok  Batayon', the report is a sheer blow to all those efforts. As a teacher of a village school, I am so overwhelmed with emotion and I have so many things to share that I am afraid that I would not be able to write coherently. So I would narrow it down to the facts behind this.
While discussing on the 'why' and 'how', the educationists and teachers of the country pointed out these facts: shortage of human resources, inadequate training, inadequate infrastructure facilities, poor, age old teaching methods, scarcity of learning tools, unawareness of the curriculum objectives, inappropriate testing/assessment system, low profile of teachers, low esteem and low salary.
All the above grounds are equally valid but to me one of the three most important factors is the last one: low profile of teachers.   
In our society, teaching is a profession of fate; not of choice.  A very few of the teachers wanted to be teachers. After graduation or post graduation, when people look for jobs, they hardly look for teaching as career. As career, teaching is not something lucrative. In Bangladesh, it does not promise advancement either in the ladder of career or in salary structure.
On the other hand, in the developed countries, teaching is the most respected profession. In October 2013, BBC news reveals a study compiled by the University of Sussex professor Peter Dalton. The study was based on surveys of 1,000 adults in 21 countries. This examined public attitude to professional status, trust, pay and the desirability of teaching as a career. The study, published by the Varkey GEMS Foundation reveals that the top 10 countries according to 'Teacher Status' are China, Greece, Turkey, South Korea, New Zealand, Egypt, Singapore, Netherlands, USA and UK (source: Varkey GEMS Foundation Global Teacher Status Index). Teachers in China have the highest level of public respect, according to the international study. In the  UK (10th position), there was a considerable level of public support for teachers - with a majority believing that they should be better paid and also underestimating the starting salary for teachers (currently about £22,000 in England outside London). Former labour schools minister, Lord Adonis said, "To recruit the brightest and best, teaching needs to be a high status occupation, and we need to understand better what contributes to the social standing of teachers". Sunny Varkey, founder of the Varkey GEMS Foundation said: "It is my ambition that teachers are treated with as much respect as doctors. Sadly, in many countries around the world teachers no longer retain the elevated status that we used to take for granted."
 Prof Dalton says the public status of teaching will influence standard of education. "This informs who decides to become a teacher in each country, how they are respected and how they are financially rewarded. Ultimately, this affects the kind of job they do in teaching our children," he says. Now, where are we in this standard of attitude towards teachers and status of teachers? I do not dare imagine. However, point to be noted here is China's achieving the first position. As China puts increasingly more emphasis on education, both the social and economic status of Chinese teachers have risen markedly. In many areas, teaching has even become an enviable job.
 In 2001, the annual wages of college and university teachers in China rose by 27.16 percent over the previous year, official sources said. Those of primary and high school teachers also got a year-on-year rise of 18.76 percent. Official sources revealed the number of teachers in China has exceeded 10 million (Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2002).
 It is no wonder that China is the most thriving power of the world. Needless to say that they have achieved the power by focusing on the single most important aspect of a person's life as well as nation building through education.
 But in our country, a primary school teacher earns small amount. Where will their motivation and dedication come from? Who will want to be a teacher?
A common phenomenon in Bangladesh is that a person who cannot get any job ends as a teacher. By and large, it is true. Most people consider teaching as stepping stone. They start their career as teacher only to gather some sort of work experience and leave it as soon as they get another one.  
Therefore to change the scenario of education system in Bangladesh, change in the status of teachers is a must. Only then they will take the job seriously, and be motivated to devote their time and energy for the pupils who are the future.
The writer is working as vice-principal at Zia Hasan International School,Karatia, Tangail,
email: [email protected]