Teachers’ performance poor

By PETER ESOP WARI
MANY primary school teachers in Southern Highlands are leaving during classes to conduct personal matters, a head teacher says.
“The worst thing is that most of them do not have the required skills to properly equip the children as they have entered colleges by using certificate belonging to others,” Sumia Primary School principal Julius Kapinias said.
Kapinias made the statements during a combined graduation ceremony with three elementary schools and the school’s 18th graduation on Wednesday.
He said Grade 10 leavers were entering teachers college only because they wanted employment and did not care about the future of innocent children.
He said his teachers had not taught students properly because most of them were unable to speak good English.
Kapinias said he did not know how they had managed to enter colleges and graduated with a teaching certificate.
He said the result of Grade 8 English written examinations this year was really poor and was a shame on all primary school teachers.
“Teachers are the backbone of this country as we are teaching the future prime ministers, doctors, lawyers and others down the line,” he said.
“If we continue to feed them with rubbish, they proceed onto the next stage filled with the rubbish.”
He said many teachers from the province were not committed and were roaming around, leaving the students with no one to care for them.
“This is a big issue for Southern Highlands and the education authorities must do something to stop this from happening if we care for our children,” he said.
“If we are spoiling the students at their early stages of education, how can they proceed onto tertiary education?”
Kapinias said many Grade 12 students did not make it through to tertiary institutions because they had been spoiled from the beginning.
He said Governor William Powi had given priority to education and his officials must start by addressing this issue because the problem would not go away.
He said primary school was the first stage where students learned many things because their minds were still developing.
“They learn and absorb many new things and we should be cautious with this.
“We need committed qualified teachers who love their profession,” he said.
Kapinias said if Southern Highlands wanted skilled human resources, a proper screening of teachers needed to be done.