So in recent times, we have heard some shocking news about teachers, the mass sack in Kaduna, the education 4.0 revolution in Nigeria that is gradually leaving teachers behind, and the question is are these people still relevant, do they still matter to the success of the Nigerian education system, should they be replaced by technology or should we get a bunch of whiz youngsters and throw them into the school system and make them teach students?
I watched a video where Dr. Modupe Adefeso of TEP said, we need teachers that look like where we want our students to be in the future, and I totally agree with this, we should attract intelligent people into the system, but we should also be on the look out for intelligent people that have the grit and passion to transfer the love of learning to the students and not just content or being able to mark a grade 6 test without consulting a textbook. And when dealing with different types of kids, this can be quite arduous a task.
Teaching is two sided, it is first the imparting the learning culture into the students, and then transferring contextual knowledge to them, one must also understand that while the knowledge changes per time, the love for learning is a constant that must be upheld. While extremely intelligent graduates and education technology can help with content delivery, only a true teacher can transfer the love for learning.
So one question that’s been going around lately is the future of work, and what will happen to sdg 4 by 2030, how the education system would have transformed and been overtaken by all forms of edtech; AR, VR, AI, Blockchain etc…
But at the core of all forms of educational technologies are two cardinal constants: The teacher and the learner and yes the role of the teacher would morph into the real core of the teacher’s duty, researching on how best to help students learn and be better, that would be their focus.
There is good and bad news, the teachers would not hide behind pedagogical content, because it would be abundantly everywhere, the true mark of a teacher by then would be how he helps every child unlock and hone his genius, and that is a very huge responsibilty.
So maybe the best thing to do is to identify and weed out those that do not have the passion to teach, those who are not driven enough to learn more for their students because if I am really that transformational leader/teacher, then i’ll do whatever it takes to produce the best students.
So should a teacher fear increasing advent of educational technology? no
Education technology is at best the teachers assistant.
'Layinka Adebayo 