Al-Watan

“A TEACHER stands closer to the prophet in position.” This saying highlights the important role of teachers in society. We know that a teacher cannot become a prophet or a messenger by any means. However, he/she can reach closer to that lofty position by working hard and doing justice to their profession that has won the reverence of society.

A teacher’s position in society is determined by his value and importance. As long as society believes that the teacher carries an important message he/she will be in a progressive line to reach that lofty position. On the other hand, their retrogression starts when people treat them just like any other employees without giving them the true respect they deserve.

What is the expected role of a teacher in society? The reply is short and simple that he/she should not become just an employee who comes and leaves school on time and writes on the board what is in the textbooks without touching the hearts of students.

At the same time we should understand that a teacher is not like a prophet who is protected from sins. He is a human being and will make mistakes. He is an employee in an educational institution and receives his salary at the end of every month. I think we should review the work of teachers regularly and take action against them if they deviate or make mistakes.

Here the issue is how to conduct this review and how we hold them responsible for their mistakes? Should we give that job either to society or to parents and students or any official authority? Are we allowed to rebuke teachers publicly?

Yes, the teacher is an employee but he/she should know that his/her job is different from others as society holds that profession in high esteem. People also deal with police differently considering their important role in maintaining law and order and safeguarding security.

This is just an example. Actually a teacher’s value is higher than the value granted by society. In other words a society that gives less importance to teachers would become valueless.

Despite the mistakes committed, Saudi teachers have been moving in the right direction. But a series of distractions stand in their way. Quite often they face investigations for charges such as harassing or reproaching a student for misconduct or causing his failure in a particular subject.

The Education Ministry was successful in removing stick from the hands of teachers. But lately the stick has fallen in the hands of students and their guardians. As a result we witness teachers being questioned in front of television cameras. They also face attack from the print media and social media networks as if they don’t deserve any respect.

What we need today is not the return of stick to the hands of teachers, but to remove it from the hands of society. We should not discuss mistakes of teachers in public places. On the other hand, they should be investigated in tightly closed areas in order to protect their dignity. The dignity of student must be preserved without affecting the dignity of teachers to safeguard our educational system and prevent it from becoming a boring routine work for both teachers and students.

I am not writing this for the sake of teachers, but for my own satisfaction being a guardian who is concerned with his children’s education and who does not wish for his children to have a teacher whose head is full of worries caused by various ministerial decisions and directives.

I am a guardian who does not want his children to be preoccupied with finding faults with their teachers and I don’t think teachers and students are in a peer to peer position. I am a parent who understands the importance of curriculum development and construction of appropriate buildings for schools and understands the importance of introducing technology into the education process.

At the same time, I believe that all these achievements would become worthless if teachers are not given the value and respect they deserve. I don’t want to see people preoccupied with calculating the leave days of teachers and their salaries and watching what they do after Dhuhr prayer.

I also do not want to be in a society whose members leave everything and spend their full time investigating the religion and ideologies of teachers. If we dwell deep into such religious issues, we can also see many parents following different ideologies and supporting various parties.

We have seen security officers making mistakes while carrying out their duties but the Interior Ministry rejects any move to lessen their value and importance because of their mistakes. It seems that the Ministry of Education has taken the issue of teachers easily. If this situation continues I am afraid it would further weaken the nobility of teaching profession.