The teaching profession is once again in the news, for all the wrong reasons. Teachers have in recent times been drawing flak from the public over the appalling conduct of its members that go against the grain of the teaching profession. The continuing developments have done little to change this conception among the public towards the teachers who appear to be dragging the profession from one crisis to another.
Not stopping at agitations, protests and demonstrations demanding salary increments and other facilities teachers have now gone one step further even to get involved in fraudulent acts, something that many would consider to be incomprehensible.
We say this because the just concluded Year Five Scholarship examination witnessed two incidents of exam fraud allegedly involving members of the teaching profession. In the first incident an Assistant Examiner, no less, was found to have assisted a student to answer the latter’s question paper while the exam was in progress.
In the other incident, the answers to the question papers had been released on social media less than three hours following the conclusion of the exams from examination centres established in the Kandy and Kalutara areas although this could not be done until the end of two months following the conclusion of the Year Five Scholarship exam in terms of the Examinations Act.
According to media reports, the Assistant Examiner who aided the student in answering the question papers was a principal serving in a difficult area. While supplying the answers to the question paper, on suspicion that he had been detected he had agitatedly left the answers on the desk of another student which gave the whole game away leading to his arrest.
What indeed has become of the once noble teaching profession one may ask if the teachers themselves are neck deep into fraud and malpractices. By his act, the Assistant Examiner had also inculcated in the young student the despicable conduct of dishonesty which the latter may well carry over into his adulthood, the consequences of which are easy to comprehend.
It is difficult to think what motivated this School Principal to act the way he did. He could well have had a vested interest in ensuring the success of the student he assisted, throwing to winds all honour and etiquette associated with the teaching profession. There are high stakes involved in the Year Five Scholarship examination with the full glare of TV focused on those who succeed, including, in addition to parents, School Principals and Teachers who mentor the students.
There are also the all-important scholarships to prestigious schools for the successful candidates. Hence, it could well not be outside the realm of possibility for teachers to engage in acts of skullduggery to ensure the success of students tutored by them so that they too could bask in the glory of TV publicity and earn the kudos.
Adding to the growing numbers of the lucrative private tuition business by such publicity could also well be an added incentive for these teachers to engage in such fraudulent acts with little consideration for the damage they inflict on the teaching profession.
Stern action is being contemplated against the miscreants by the education authorities. There has also been an incident of a delay in the commencement of the exam in another centre in Kegalle which also is being investigated.
Examination malpractices involving teachers was an unheard-of phenomenon in the past in an era where the teaching profession was looked up to by the general public with much honour and respect and teachers were almost deified for the role, they played in not only educating the young but also guiding them towards becoming responsible citizens.
This is no longer the case with both teachers and Principals allowing themselves to be used as cat’s paws in political games – engaging in strikes and protest demonstrations- conduct unbecoming of a profession whose sole responsibility lies in the education of the country’s youth.
The incidents at the examination centres are only an extension of what has become of our teaching profession where monetary rewards and prestige overshadow all other tenets and qualities that are held dear by this once noble profession. Who can forget the episode where it was reported in the media how a school Principal was taken into custody by the Police after it was found he was carrying out a moonshine business in his home? Could such an episode have been imagined even in one’s wildest dreams in the past where it was the teachers who laid down the rules and the rest expected to follow them to the letter?
It is time the relevant authorities took stock of what has become of our teaching profession and devised remedies to stem the rot before things assume more serious proportions that would not only affect the country’s education sector but also contribute to the moral decline of our younger generation who would try to emulate the teachers. If that be the case, there will be no knowing where the country will be headed to looking at things in their current context.
