TEACHERS are always commended for imparting knowledge from an infant in baby class to a university graduate.
This makes them walk with their heads high when they see their former students spread out in all professions and making their contributions to development in various sectors of the country.
We have all passed through the hands of teachers and they have, to a great extent, moulded us into what we know and, for that, we owe them a lot.
Someone once said ‘to teach is to touch lives forever’ and we agree with him because the work of a teacher on a pupil will always be there for all to see.
Because of their place in our society, Government has now seen it fit to introduce practising licences for teachers.
According to Deputy minister of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education David Mabumba, the practising certificates are intended to regulate the professional conduct of teachers.
Any teacher who will remain unlicenced will not be allowed to teach either in a government or private school. The practising certificates will be issued by the Teaching Council of Zambia.
The Teaching Council of Zambia, which has since come into effect, aims to regulate the affairs of teachers. we want to commend government for taking this bold step because we are convinced this will ultimately raise the standard of the profession in Zambia.
A number of other professions in Zambia demand licensing and they are regulated by professional entities in an effort to uphold standards among their fraternity.
One of the aims of regulating a profession is to ensure that the professional code of conduct is adhered to and those who are regulated are not found outside the set bounds.
We want to say that with the regulation in place, we will no longer hear of cases of abuse involving children who are placed under the care of teachers.
We have come across numerous instances where a teacher has sexually, or otherwise, abused a child under their care or they commit some abominable act and they can go scot-free.
In some instances, there are teachers who do not perform and they remain on the government payroll until retirement.
Once in a while, a teacher is found taking beer with pupils, an act which a professional should not even think of.
In the case of some private schools, it is not an overstatement that some of them engage unqualified teachers in exchange for low salaries.
We, therefore, want to see that the profession is propelled to higher standards of discipline and academic excellence by ridding it of those bad eggs that taint its good name.
Like a rotten groundnut which can affect the rest of the fresh ones, the acts committed by a few bad eggs in any profession tend to filter through the strata and eventually cast a bad name on the profession.
In implementing the code of conduct for teachers, we want to urge government, through the Teaching Service Commission, to work hand in hand with the Teaching Council of Zambia, the teacher unions and Parent Teacher Associations to help the council succeed.
The teaching profession is spread to the furthermost points of the country and we, therefore, urge their unions to engage in massive sensitisation on the formation of the Teaching Council of Zambia and the need to be accredited.