African perceptions towards teacher-student relationship must change for good in order to create an appropriate ambiance for learning. A young teacher who is full of life is hardly trusted with female students outside the class, some institutions have made students especially female students look at male teachers as antagonist beyond classroom boundaries.

Learning does not only take place within school premises, challenge is that some people have not taken time to understand the entire notion of teaching and learning in its own right in relation to learning environment for better content mastery hence better performance. Make teachers or lecturers more professional than limiting their relationship with students only in the confines of the class.

Students face so many problems some of which bar them from continuing with their studies, such issues are not so often discussed within the classroom setting but a mere lurch out and a bump in any school’s top management sweats flow for not only the student but the teacher him or her-self.

Students should be our friends as mentors to be able to understand their competences, their daily problems and be able to bring the best out of them. If teachers continue to create that gap, we shall nature very educated people and thus lay to rest learned citizenry hence wobbling the progress of our nation.

After I submitted my research proposal, my supervisor was not impressed at all and she asked me to find her out for a talk, only to meet her at the pool sipping on a cold coke; she welcomed me and we started the usual academic business. However deep inside me I was wondering what would happen if I attempted to do that back home, I would certainly be the talk of the town with headlines all- over social media and the name is tarnished in just a brink of an eye and moreover in the process of executing your duties

Well the context of culture is a highly regarded notion in the periphery but harnessing our cultural dynamics in this global economy is key for us to gain a competitive advantage and be able to nurture top graduates who can compete on international Arena.

Professor Mahmoud Mamdani while addressing students in Makerere University in September 2012 said, "the academic freedom we had in Makerere in the late 60s, 70s and 80s created a ground for our international recognition on fronts of academic success and sound intellectual muscle”. He added that much as students’ academic desire at the time was at its zenith, their uncompromising relationship with their teachers was always very tremendous.

Cutting the story short, the relationship we talking about here and in this particular topic transcends beyond classroom to the library, to staffroom to anywhere were the environment seems conducive for learning thus re-affirming the concept of group learning and students coaching

Is academic freedom under threat? Certainly yes, if such rhetoric continues we shall not be able to build vibrant pool of academics with great significance to our nations, it will instead perpetuate tendencies of individualism, the i don’t care attitude from the teacher as well as further alienate the students away from their teachers which may have a negative impact on their academic performance and thereafter.

Way forward

Designing a new learning strategy and perhaps the most fundamental one being a new design enhances flexibility and academic freedom simply because no one can predict how educational technologies and teaching modalities will evolve over time. Therefore learning spaces and stakeholder in learning must adapt to whatever changes the future may hold since we accepted to move within the context of globalization and education internationalization.

To achieve this flexibility therefore architects must re- design classroom , or learning studios and other learning premises with handy furniture and walls that can easily be reconfigured for different class sizes and subjects hence creating the environment that will enhance and inspire intellectual curiosity and promote social interactions between the student’s them-selves and teachers.

Education institutions and policy makers must as well build trust and ensure high level professionalism among the teachers such that there is no doubt about their credentials and teacher professional ethics that may block them from fully executing their duties within the manner that defines who a teacher is and should be.

The write is a PhD student of Comparative Education and leadership at Beijing Normal University