The Teacher I knew

About the site

One wise man once said that teaching is a noble profession. Teaching is a channel through which knowledge, formal or informal, is transferred from person to person. And the teachers are the main drivers of knowledge that organizes the world around the people.

Anyone who has been to school in their life has fond memories of the fun days we had at school. You should have at least one teacher who changed your perception of the world you live in. That teacher who made you forget about your worries and problems you have in your life. The teacher who made your dreams become a reality and made the goals you set for yourself achievable. These are the professionals who prepare future medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, writers, actors and directors, economists, psychologists, politicians, accountants, scientists and of course the teachers themselves.

The profession has sadly noted the impact of the changes that democracy has brought to South African schools in general and township schools in particular. Township schools have been adversely affected by the political dispensation that ushered in post-1994-SA. Democracy meant different things for different people.

In the present day SA teachers are left stranded and frustrated by the changes that occur in their work environment. These changes have affected the quality of their work, effectiveness and efficiency with which they carry out their duty. The end result is that many teachers are left despondent due to abuse from learners and lack of adequate parental, community and governmental support.

Recently a new trend has developed among teachers of having to resort to resignation or early retirement from teaching as way of coping or managing stress related to teaching. The profession is losing some of the best and experienced teachers before their time. The system is left with few competent and experienced teachers. The number of teachers that fall ill from depression is alarming. Some teachers who are on retirement do not live past five years after leaving teaching.

The future of our country looks dull and non-bright with every teacher that passes on, resigns or retires from teaching before their time. The number of qualified and skilled young people that the country would have produced diminishes with every teacher lost by the system. This is likely to lead to increased levels of unemployment, poverty, social inequalities and crime in our country.

Honour, respect and nobility must be brought back to teaching. Teachers have to reclaim their space and place in society. Educators are unsung heroes, whose contribution to our society is often overlooked. Many teachers, past and present, have never been properly honoured for bringing about positive changes to the communities they serve or served.

This space (website) is meant to honour and pay respect to the teachers from across our country who have had an impact, small or big, on the school or community in which they serve or served. The legacy that teachers leave behind should be archived in one form or another so that the contributions they make should not exist as a memory but rather be documented. This site aims to celebrate teachers and the impact they have and had so that future generation need not forget.

It matters that we are teachers.

Mofokeng TE