Opinion piece

Teachers deserve more 

Teaching remains one of the important fundamental profession in south africa, but still undermined.

The world is facing an uncertain global pandemic. The pandemic has halted so many activities from sports activities being postponed indefinitely to economy hitting its highest low; particularly in south africa.

The education sector remains in 'despair' so to say. There are many factors contributing to it no being in the fore front, we are in a lockdown the sector has to brace for new paradigm shift; which is to migrate to online learning (e-learning).

The basic education department has rather opted for this migration; which is good by the way. But the manner in which it is done raises eyebrows; letting the so called 'celebrities' be do ones heeding this new Era isn't just a spat in the face but an insult to teachers. Reading my tweeter feed which is filled by so many outraged individuals, who subsequently shook the tweeter streets by the #CelebritiesAreNotTeachers a hash tag that seeks to address the blatant unfairness done to the profession that has molded and honed so many profession.

How do you let someone who has never taught anywhere teach? We know it is a 'books club' and the celebrities made this voluntarily and won't be paid, as per Panyaza Lesufi explanation on Twitter. But teaching is a skill and reading to people; if you hire a mere celebrity to teach(ooh forgive me for using this word 'teach') they obviously can't teach since they don't hold any qualifications.

The mere fact that the department hire or let these celebrities have a shout at this, debunks the whole purpose of trying to eliminate the unemployment amongst graduates.

People are not fighting the initiative, the initiative is right and precise, but to simply turn a blind eye on people who hold some qualifications isn't something the department did it thoughtful.

I'd rather the department of basic education give the lot teachers a shout at this, it will sharpen their skills and whet their confidence.