THE ISSUE OF PROFESSIONALISM IN TEACHING

A profession is a defined field of study or occupation characterised by high level of education. The basic features of a profession include; a defined field of study and high level of education, admission into a practice is limited to only qualified persons, a defined code of professional conduct, the use of clearly defined sanctions for non-compliance with professional ethics. The teaching profession seems to be lacking in the above features which give rise to the question of whether teaching is actually a profession or an area of general practice in Nigeria. The issue of professionalism in teaching has been a controversial one. 

The inability of successive governments in Nigeria to match the trend in educational development with an equal and relevant development in teachers training has negatively affected teaching service as a profession. This has led to the continued short supply of trained teachers which the multiplier effect includes unrestrained access to the teaching field by untrained persons, the use of pilot training programmes as qualifying training for teachers at the basic level of education, the admission of persons without any formal teachers training background as teachers in the formal school system. The teaching profession has suffered a lot of damage over the years. 

The low morale of trained teachers due to poor economic prospects associated with the profession has led to many trained teachers abandoning their profession to another field with higher economic prospects. These conditions portray the teaching profession as one that is less concern with quality and more with numerical strength, even though the numerical strength of entrants into the profession does not guarantee the quality of performance. It is a truism that our educational system needs a kind of surgery because it has been ill for a long time. According to Arabi, c.o (2000), the teaching field is clearly the wheel that propels the development of education”. 

Therefore, teachers have to meet and reflect on certain basic conditions of professionalism to ensure the exclusion of untrained persons from the teaching profession and the Teachers Registration Council (TRC) should live up to expectation by monitoring and controlling professional activities in the teaching field as only this can restore teachers credibility as professionals.