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The teacher is the basis of education development

The teacher is the basis of education development
Hossam Badrawi
I was in a meeting with the signing of a protocol of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the “Education First” Foundation, which I have the honor to lead its advisory committee, which is concerned with training directors of government schools of languages ​​and teachers of languages, sciences and mathematics, and the number of the 1000 schools is this, and this non-profit civil institution performs this work at the best level of Training under internationally accredited programs, and has trained more than twenty thousand teachers and principals in the past seven years.
A dialogue took place between me and the leaders of the ministry about “the ministry’s announcement that it needs to appoint teachers with the quota due to the severe shortage of them,” an announcement that provoked a large number of education experts, because of the appearance of underestimation of the profession and a lack of appreciation for its value, regardless of the humiliating low financial return that is presented on them.
Astonishment increases when we know that the law of supply and demand has proven its wisdom throughout history in all services and industries except in education in Egypt. There is a decision not to appoint graduates of faculties of education in schools, a matter that I have repeatedly failed to understand in the context of the great need for them and the abundance available to them without work.
Colleges of Education are university colleges that prepare the teacher as a specialized and pedagogical preparation to teach the subjects and to lead the school activities included in the curricula and approved in all pre-university educational levels, and include:
■ Faculties of General Education.. They are located in all universities and all governorates, and they are teachers of scientific, literary and religious education subjects, in addition to teachers of special education.
■ Faculties of Specific Education.. They prepare teachers for technical, musical and technological subjects, and some of them are specialists in educational media.
■ Faculties of Physical Education and Faculties of Art Education.
■ Industrial education teacher preparation colleges.
■ Kindergarten colleges.. They prepare teachers and facilitators for nurseries and kindergartens.
This is in addition to some departments of the other 70 colleges, which prepare business education teachers, social workers, home economics and environmental education teachers.
These colleges grant bachelor’s and bachelor’s degrees, in addition to postgraduate degrees, such as diplomas, master’s degrees and doctorates.. However, the faculties of education face an existential crisis in Egypt that goes beyond proposals for development.. It is not enough to develop specific and purposeful academic and educational curricula for teacher preparation, and proposed modeling of infrastructure from Where departments and divisions, and programs to develop the professional capabilities of faculty members, and to overcome the challenges of lack of coordination between professors of specialized subjects and educational subjects in light of the unity of the goal of preparing an efficient teacher capable of achieving national standards of education, poor communication between students and professors, non-compliance with office hours and the absence of academic guidance , which is what higher education suffers from in general.. It is not enough to face these challenges, because these colleges are facing an existential crisis, not a development crisis.
Over the years, I have seen a silent hostility between the Ministry of Education and the colleges of education, which are called in many countries of the world “colleges of education.” The natural path for graduates of these colleges has become closed in state schools despite the need for them… meaning that the factory produces and the market needs, and the state does not allow fill the need.
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Since I was Chairman of the Education Committee in Parliament fifteen years ago, I have noticed the weakness of institutional coordination between the faculties of education and the Ministry of Education and directorates of education in all governorates, and the lack of effectiveness of practical education (field training in schools); Because of the overcrowding of schools, the absence of students at the same time, the failure of their officials to train student teachers, and the lack of serious supervision in training.. In addition, the limited space given to advanced teaching methods linked to multimedia, e-learning and distance education, and the predominance of traditional teaching methods in most courses, and what It is accompanied by modest notes and assessment methods based on typical exams “content and management”.
Once again, the lack of adherence to the appointment of graduates of faculties of education in schools is a matter that I have repeatedly failed to understand in the context of the need and abundance that go hand in hand in a system that ends with the plight of education… and in light of appointing teachers to the quota in a way that insults the entire educational process and the teaching profession in particular.
Policies for the development of faculties of education for teacher preparation
The relative weights of the academic, educational and cultural components of teacher preparation programs are determined in the light of the tasks entrusted to the teacher at the stage in which he is preparing to teach, and in light of the principles of flexibility, diversity and decentralization that we advocate and pursue in Egypt’s vision of education, and I stress its importance in higher education, so the faculties of education It should compete qualitatively in light of the university’s philosophy, its structural organizations, and the needs of the region in which it operates.
Policies for developing faculties of education fall within the framework of higher education development policies in general.. However, due to the specificity and importance of these faculties, I propose a set of specific policies for their development, including:
First: Setting a specific and clear message and strategic objectives for each college in line with its specificity, and in light of the nature and needs of the community it serves.
Second: Adapting work programs and practices in faculties of education according to the credit-hour system, in a way that works to unify the complementary and sequential systems, with opening paths between faculties of education and other faculties, and the possibility of rotating some of the acquired hours between the appropriate university fields of study for those graduates of those faculties who wish to practice the profession of education . This necessitates the development of some colleges that complement their teaching programs, such as science, literature, and Al-Alsun… and others.
I realize that the trend towards teaching through the credit hour system has overcome with time resistance from university administrations and faculty members.. What students learn in universities and institutes must be visible
Orally and readable with internationally recognized academic units, so that this student can move vertically and transversely without wasting his effort and the accumulation of his education.
Third: Developing admission systems in faculties of education, by setting and applying objective admission tests to select students, similar to special abilities tests. I know that the subject of exams to enter university colleges also encounters societal resistance, but the teaching profession, from my point of view, is a profession of a special nature.. Closed classes with teachers we have prepared..and their influence on children and youth will remain firmly rooted in their conscience..so how can the state not institutionally conduct the psychological and academic tests necessary for more than twenty million children and young people to be the best teacher and the greatest teacher?..how not to set conditions? Eyes are opened to these tests?!.
This is from one side, and the other side is: How do we motivate young people to choose this path? .. How do we motivate students of knowledge and knowledge to enter the teaching profession?
The state’s responsibility is to make this profession attractive, and to make for it, in addition to its appropriate financial stimulating return, a social return that builds the need for it and market its evaluation… Who will strive and strive to become a teacher in the current educational conditions?! On another opportunity… the community and its leadership must work to make the profession of teacher a positive choice for young people, which they seek while knowing that within the framework of legitimacy and respect for the law, they can obtain a decent return for a decent life without private lessons, and without obtaining the advantage based on the corruption of the educational process, Which made these lessons outside the scope of the educational institution a basis upon which the student, the guardian, and the teachers depend.
Every point of these policies needs a program of action.. But unfortunately, I see a clear trend of the state in reducing the role of faculties of education at the present time, and not accepting new students in them, and avoiding the appointment of its graduates on the pretext of low educational levels.. Also, the ability of some trends The religiously fanatical ideology of some of these colleges at one time made the government lift its hand from them instead of reforming them, and away from developing them instead of facing a crisis that deserves to be faced, not only at the level of education colleges, but at the level of society as a whole.
No great nation, such as Egypt, can face the development of education without a competent teacher who is capable of developing, open-minded and educated, who instills the values ​​of modernity and knowledge, builds personality, and affirms the Egyptian identity.. The call here is to take responsibility and face the challenge, not escape from it.
And the wisdom says: “The level of education in any nation does not rise above the level of its teachers.”