When qualified teachers are judged twice

Rebecca is a senior two student at Lycee de Kigali secondary school. She aspires to become a doctor and as such, she mainly concentrates on science subjects. She says she likes these subjects not only for excellent performance, but it has come to be part of her life. “Sciences are part of my life, not simply because I want to become a doctor but it is simple for me to understand the subjects than art subjects,” she said. She explains that her scores in the subjects give her hope and confidence in her school life to achieve the long term goal. However, at a certain point, Rebecca complains saying she is sometimes confused with some methods teachers use to instruct the learners. She explains that “Some teachers are good, but others are not all that good to the extent that they can easily make students change their attitudes towards achieving life goals. This is based on their expression and methods of teaching,” she said. According to her, some teachers are discouraging even before or when they introduce a topic instead of encouraging students. She urges that although teachers can not have the same and good teaching methods, some are too negative; for example a teacher starts “You know it well that Sciences are very hard subjects, in that case if any of you is not ready to face such, please you better take action or even change your destination.” “That is discouraging students from taking science subjects, even my friends have many times had different and negative interpretation with such comments,” she said. The 13 year old, does not only look at the introductory part of a lesson, topic or subject but all the time a teacher is in class for a lesson. Without specifying, she pointed out that some teachers are too boring to the extent that students fail to understand such subjects. Like any where in the world, in Rwanda, teachers undergo different education standards mainly by attending Teacher Training Colleges, to attain skills and techniques as professional teachers. Although the training duration varies depending on the award to be given, at least there is a set standard based on the performance and a teaching practice exercise to ensure teachers capability to serve. Richard Byamugisha is a teacher at St Joseph in Nyamirambo. He says although individuals have different capacity to grasp, as a teacher he ensures his role is played the best way possible. “The fact that people do not understand the same way, the teaching learning exercise is based on both the learner and the teacher,” he said. Adding that as a teacher, he tries as much to serve the best way possible. He explains that as it calls for effective measures by the teacher to ensure that learners are served effectively, students too must be in a learning mood or position. He urged that teaching and learning methods must not only be applied by teachers, but students should also make use of measures to effective learning. “The two parties have almost equal responsibility in making sure that teaching leads to real learning, or else failure can never be blamed on one side,” he said. The seven year experienced teacher pointed out that sometimes, other teachers may not be as good as others, but this may depend on many factors that might be attached to professional principals. “Teachers are meant to be organized right from the beginning of the lesson to the end. He or she must have a lesson plan, which helps him or guides all his work for the day in class,” he said. Adding that the Lesson Plan specifies exactly the topic, sub-topic and all what the teacher is meant to teach that specific day. On skills and techniques of teaching, he said teachers must observe all skills to capture the attention of students so that they can easily learn. He added that as a teacher and even other teachers, it is possible to detect when students are not focused on learning. “There will be signs that students are bored either based on the topic being taught, time running out to go for a break or to have a different lecture,” he said. He advised that teachers can easily create jokes unexpectedly. When students enjoy it and end-up cheering, even others who might be tired will be attracted and captured back to the lesson. However he stressed much that presently, the teaching methods gives learners to effectively contribute towards effective learning based on their participation in the learning teaching exercise. Whenever students perform well, both the school and administration will be credited for the performance unlike for poor performance when the learner faces hard time both at school and home. It is therefore important for both learners and teachers to effectively play their roles for excellent performance to avoid struggles of who to blame for failure. bab_su@yahoo.com