World Teachers’ Day 2021

As we commemorate World Teachers’ Day 2021, can we confidently say that teachers are emotionally, mentally, and physically equipped to be at the heart of the education recovery?

Yes, teachers were able to work from home, and were available for their own children and any family member who became infected with COVID-19 without the need to ‘stay out of school’, but the reality of what our teachers had to endure during the lockdown and the subsequent school reopening is staggering. At the heart of the regulatory decisions being made, the teacher had to be a frontline warrior, fighting both professional and personal battles to ensure that the education of learners wasn’t compromised. 

Having to juggle online teaching (dealing with the newness of Zoom calls, online assessments, and multiple online groups), homeschooling their own children with limited resources, managing working and living spaces at home for parents and children, dealing with the virus and the accompanying infections that affected many family members; all of this certainly came at a price. 

The new ‘normal’ necessitated that teachers be on call at hours far exceeding their general 7am to 3pm school hours. The need for real-time assistance and support led to teachers having to use their personal phones to call, e-mail, text, or video conference with students and parents, often extending to evenings and weekends. 

The pandemic did more than simply expose the inequities within our education system with regard to poor infrastructure, a lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms, learner violence, poverty-related social problems, and limited exposure to digitalisation within the classroom. It highlighted the fragility and, in some instances, the absence of a well-entrenched, holistic teacher support system. The reported emotional distress, illness, loss, anxiety, fatigue, and fear expressed by teachers, especially those teaching in secondary schools, highlights the need to reflect on the current systems in place to avoid a serious deterioration and collapse that could usher in a mental health pandemic in the not-too-distant future.

However, all is not lost. Our teachers have proven to be resilient, committed, and agile in their attitude and actions. They’ve persevered and embraced the newness of technology, mastered the art of online teaching, coached parents in how to support their children academically, and made the learners’ transition back to the classroom almost seamless. 

With the return of learners to classrooms, and year-end examinations around the corner, teachers will have to employ rapid action assessments and tools to combat the learning losses. These include reworked curriculum plans, remediation, and revised assessment/examination plans. In addition to the learning and teaching, there is also a need to provide the emotional and social support required as a result of loss, grief, pregnancy, abuse, and other ills occurring during the lockdown. 

Teachers, at the heart of the education recovery, will be challenged to lead their learners in novel, innovative ways while tending to their own vulnerabilities, fears, and frustrations. To ensure that teachers are able to play a meaningful and impactful role as drivers of the education recovery, there is dire need to ensure that the Education Department, together with key government departments, prioritises and funds plans to strengthen teachers’ capacity to meet the current and evolving challenges facing our schools.

We expect a great deal of these superhumans - yet they never fail to deliver!