Interview: “If Teachers Do The Right Thing, Children Will Respect Them”

You just concluded a workshop in Yaounde from January 6-7, 2023. What was the training about?
It was a workshop for teachers. Our objective was to enable participants to become quality teachers for quality education in quality institutions in order to produce quality results.

Why did you organise the workshop at this time?
We noticed the need for teachers to receive in-service training, especially in private schools where most of the teachers are not trained. Rehoboth Anglo-Saxon School Complex, Mvan, Yaounde, is a young school. We believe that if we set the pace for its teachers, students and pupils, it will be carried on. We want to bring up school children in an environment that is conducive for learning. This is why the theme of the workshop was “Quality teachers for quality education, institutions and results.” 
Schools have to be of good quality – morally, spiritually and physically. They need to be clean, and the teachers morally, mentally and psychologically prepared in order to produce school children with quality results. Like the saying goes; “You cannot give what you do not have.” We want to build teachers who will impact the lives of school children. 

What else did the workshop entail?
We handled three modules. The first was on the development of life skills. There is always the problem of interpersonal relationship and communication in the workplace; which renders the work environment toxic. If colleagues cannot relate well amongst themselves, cannot communicate well; or if communication is misinterpreted, it can cause hurt, anger, frustration and demotivate some workers. Especially if it comes from leaders. 
The second module was on pedagogy for competency, given that Cameroon now focuses on the competency-based approach to learning. The module included lesson planning, with highlights on how to write competency-based lesson objectives. If a teacher knows the objectives of their lesson, they will understand what to include in the lesson in order to achieve the expected results. 
The third module was digitalisation or distant education and how to prepare lessons on PowerPoint for digitalisation. There is already a paradigm shift in teaching in Cameroon. A few years from today, if a teacher cannot digitalise their lessons, they might not be able to find a place in the teaching field.

From your experience and observation, is lesson planning such a major problem amongst teachers? 
Yes, it is! If teachers teach the way we were trained, it will be difficult to get learners to understand. Today’s school children are so versed with the use of Android phones and the Internet, and are not as composed as we were. If the teacher does not formulate objectives that grab the attention of learners to remain focused on the lesson, it will be difficult to manage the class. If a teacher cannot manage a class, they will be frustrated. Learners will equally get frustrated and the class will become chaotic. 
We worked with teachers on how to formulate good lesson objectives to guide them and ease their work in class. When teachers announce their lesson objectives to students, it gives them the perspective to organise, ...