I know not everyone will agree to this claim that the most important factor in education is faculty. I didn’t even think about that when Sutherland invited us for a seminar-workshop. Participants were put into teams and presented their responses to the questions asked at the beginning of the workshop. Based on all the answers presented, no team mentioned about the faculty factor. They had all common factor– the school infrastructure. For them the most neglected aspects in education system are the facilities, technology, and other infrastructure. They might have a point but the workshop facilitator named Vjay brought out that FACULTY is the most important. He said that he learned accounting even without having a ledger because his teacher taught him so.
If faculty is the most important factor, it is also the most ignored factor in education. Teaching is still the noblest profession, I still know that everybody agrees to that. I do. Everybody might agree as well that faculty development is also being neglected in most schools. According to Vjay, even if you don’t have the best facilities but you have the best teachers, students will still learn best. How can we have best teachers if we don’t develop them to be one?
Teachers need to be developed. Having a good teacher doesn’t happen over night. Faculty development entails a lot of investment. Money, of course, is not excluded. But why do we still invest on people? We do because people couldn’t be duplicated. They are unique. They are humans and they have needs. Compensation may not be all in the motivation of teachers.However, they have families to feed and at least they want a comfortable life. It’s not wrong to be desirous on these things.
I come to realize that Vjay was right. It’s not only because I am a faculty member (maybe that’s one), but also I am an ordinary citizen of the country who is also concern about the education system. I have kids to go to school sooner. I am also interested about their future that’s full of hope.
