Why Teacher Training for Primary Education Matters
Education
A long-standing top priority is building an efficient, just, and equitable primary education sector aiming for zero failure after 6-7 years
By Sada Reddi
Reforming education in the 21st century remains a major challenge for stakeholders in society, and there is no quick solution. Changing times, the emergence of new challenges, and rising expectations have all compounded the role and responsibility of educators in present-day society.
Recent interviews and articles in the press paint a chaotic and dismal picture of the education sector, and strong feelings of despondency seem to have gripped educators, especially as acute unsolved social problems have invaded school premises as never before. Short-term and immediate solutions can only plug a few gaps and are inefficiently implemented, pending the implementation of more creative and innovative strategies for an ever-changing present and uncertain future.
The various stakeholders coming together for the national conference on education organised by the Ministry of Education had pinned their hopes that some solutions could be found to meet the many challenges, and the 14 themes which will be explored indicate the ambition and determination of the minister to plan holistically to overhaul the system. While there has been some scepticism about the conference and its outcome — not necessarily unjustified given experience, but nevertheless a legitimate voice in a democratic and liberal society — one can expect at least that a few priorities can be identified which can be implemented as soon as possible.
With this view in mind, one hopes that one top priority, which has occupied the minds of many for at least half a century, is how to build a primary education sector which is efficient, just, and equitable to achieve zero failure at the end of 6 or 7 years of education. While educational reforms are expected to tackle many wide-ranging issues in an integrated manner, one major component of reform should be teacher training for the primary sector.
We may not have realized that teacher training has been a major failure for the primary sector for several decades simply because our institutions were not staffed with qualified teacher trainers for the primary sector. Even at the Teachers’ Training College, one of the primary teachers who went for training as a primary teacher recalled that most of the teacher trainers were subject specialists fresh from university, with only two expatriates — one specializing in infant education and the other teaching French. There were also two headteachers with experience at the primary level who had joined the staff to provide some practical experience to trainees. There were also woodwork and gardening classes which introduced children to manual work but also equipped teachers to prepare their own pedagogical resources for teaching.Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 11 April 2025
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