Recently, there has been a lot of talk about shortage of science teachers. Indeed, none other than Dr. Nancy Macharia, the CEO of Teachers Service Commission, and Julius Ogamba, the CS for education, have confessed about this predicament. Given that those are the key functionaries in the education sector, one must recognise the gravity of the situation.
Let it be agreed that science is a key component for our development. When science education is taken casually, we cannot generate the human capital needed for industrialisation. We would thus find ourselves lagging behind in key areas. These include agriculture, the health sector, industries, engineering, and the like. It would mean we have to remain in the consumer domain; even unto importing things we would easily manufacture locally; or having to make do with the so-called expatriates to run our critical sectors.
To ensure we don’t experience such a scenario, it is important to have all we need for effective teaching of sciences in our schools. Top on the list of requisite resources is the key item: science teachers.
That is why it is disquieting to have officers of the above calibre confessing that there is a scarcity in that area. It is an issue that needs immediate attention. A show at whimpering about the problem will not do. A sober assay is direly needed here.
The crucial question is: what could bring us to this situation? How come we have a scarcity of science teachers?
I wish to look at various mitigating factors which can come in play to give rise to this scenario. Looked at properly and soberly, I believe they could help alleviate this unfortunate situation.
COLLEGES
Could it be that the colleges are not producing science teachers?
We all know that training a teacher of science needs resources. The training institutions need labs and workshops with enough capacity to accommodate the required number of students. They also need personnel: lecturers, technicians, and the like. That is where the ministry of education comes in. If teachers of science are needed, deliberate efforts must be made to ensure that the universities and colleges have the wherewithal to facilitate their training. Just as we budget for the training of a doctor or a lawyer, we have to similarly budget for a teacher of science.
Have we done this? Does the ministry of education have that crucial section of planning? Does it work in liaison with TSC? Suppose TSC predicted that 1000 teachers of physics would be needed yearly, can’t the ministry work with universities and colleges to produce this number? They can; if deliberate efforts are made to finance the training. That way, the scarcity will be alleviated.
MOTIVATION
I have met a number of former teachers of science who have changed profession. The main reason they give is lack of motivation.
This is an issue for the CEO TSC, to think about seriously. It is an obvious fact that a worker needs motivation. If one is not motivated, they could be there in body, while the spirit is elsewhere.
What would constitute motivation for a teacher of science?
- Conditions at work place
Look at it any other way; but the situation at one’s place of work is paramount for one to give maximum output. Yet in many cases, a science teacher’s workplace is not conducive for their job.
I have argued in this space that science teachers need a safe environment to work effectively. Yet many schools, especially those headed by teachers of the Arts, subject these teachers to a very unfavourable work environment.
The teachers are their own lab assistants, and have to supervise cleaning. Then they have to teach without lab coats, gloves, masks, eye goggles, and the like. In short, very few head teachers see the essence of facilitating a teacher of science; some even view them with a degree of disdain and suspicion.
These teachers also need a special allowance for working in a risky environment. At one time, it used to be there. In fact, they were given three increments. This was abolished after bitter teachers of subjects like CRE and religion and history complained, urging equality, so-called. Even the ignorant KNUT called for abolition of ‘special treatment’. Yet is it special to give these teachers a risk allowance? Don’t they work in a risky environment? Acids, bases and salts? Fumes? Poisons? Sharp objects, and them all?
Recall the year when alkaline pyrogallol was used as one of the reagents in a practical? This is against the rules of teaching and testing. Such a reagent is supposed to be used BY THE TEACHER to DEMONSTRATE something; in this case absorption of oxygen from the environment. KNEC apologised later, after many of us had the yellow burns on our hands and clothes.
REINSTATE THE SPECIAL ALLOWANCE, DR. MACHARIA.
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- Promotion
It is a fact that most educational administrators are Art based. Same to the TSC personnel.
Expecting that both the TSC CEO and the CS, Education have an inkling about issues educational, I would refer both to Hertzog’s Theory of Motivation. A paraphrase of this is simple: when there is a higher motivation to do something than to maintain the status quo, that something gets done.
Sometime back, in this space, I expounded on this issue. How motivated are the science teachers?
This mistaken view that teachers of science can’t act in administrative positions is as misguided as it is aberrated. Hiring somebody on the basis of their qualification, and keeping them in one job group for over ten years on the basis of them being teachers of science is very demeaning. One time, I was privy to a situation where the Strategic Plan of a NATIONAL school was being drawn. The chair was a teacher of English; the vice-chair was a teacher of Kiswahili and History. The DOS was also English; for gender balance, the HOD, Languages, also came in. no wonder so many things go wrong in schools.
If a teacher of science finds an outlet, they won’t hesitate.
PGDE
Anybody here recall this great course? It was one of the sources of a good number of teachers.
In involved people who had general degrees in sciences, like BSc (Sc) going for a post-graduate Diploma in Education, and being employed as teachers of sciences. Some of them were even BSc (Metrology).
Some time back, this course was discontinued by the colleges. I think it was Prof. Magoha who outlawed it. That source of science teachers was thus cut abruptly. CS Magamba, CEO Macharia: what do you think?
One thing should guide us: we need to make deliberate efforts to alleviate this problem we are talking of. Let us revamp our training strategies. Let’s allocate resources for an increased training capacity for science teachers. And having trained them, let’s put in place parameters which will lead to their being retained in their position. Let’s not handle them like automatons, just because they did science.
I rest my case.
By Charles O. Okoth
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