May 12, 2009
Dear Mr. Editor,
Please allow me space in your respectable newspaper. Every year we celebrate “Education Week,” and every year we are presented with plans of change and improvement in the education system. Policymakers, managers, educators, decision-makers and ministers change; however, there is one customary law that has not changed for decades – the law of favoritism and nepotism. All the above bureaucrats will tell you that education is the foundation of personal development, social stability and economic independence. That is true to a certain extent where the system is allowed to function properly, but if you throw favoritism and nepotism in between, all the education you have achieved plays no role. To prove my point, I relay to you my story:
I completed tertiary level education with honors because my grade point value was close to perfect. I was very proud to achieve such high marks among many other colleagues, and behind my mind I thought that I would have a better chance of gaining employment than my fellow graduates. I had reason to believe that, and more so when I knew my fellow graduates had barely made it to graduation and had failed English and Math subjects, even after they had cheated in class. So when I applied for a teaching job, I had no reason to think that I was going to compete with, and lose to, these very students. First I applied for a teaching job with Government, but the turnaround I was given, gave me reasonable justification to conclude that I was ultimately turned down because I was not a fanatic of the political party of the government in power. So, I applied to a catholic management for a teaching employment. Yet, I was turned down again because I do not attend church services or follow their religious belief. And so every morning when I see the very students who have flunked the most important subjects, standing and waiting in their teaching uniforms for transportation to their workplace, I am annoyed and to a certain point angry. This leads me to one conclusion: your grades do not matter. The popular saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” holds true. This is reality, and your expensive education is not always important.
Finally, all the plans for improvements are not worth the paper they are written on, and so the quality of education is compromised and the ultimate loser is not me – it’s the children. What quality of children can we expect from teachers whose moral values are made more important than their academic qualifications? And so the cycle of church-state relationship continues. The plan by government to constitute a Teachers Commission is not going to make any changes if the commissioners are political and/or religious supporters.
JS
John Smith <[email protected]>