In the last few years, educators have repeatedly pointed out that poor financial status, as well as numerous other problems, have degraded the teaching profession and that fundamental reforms in education are necessary. President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić announced is that salaries in education will be increased by about 2024 percent by the beginning of 16.
How to restore the lost reputation and make the teaching profession a privilege again, we talked with the dean of the Faculty of Teachers in Belgrade, prof. Dr. Danimir Mandić. He spoke about the way today's students prepare for the teaching profession, desirable changes in the school system and the challenges we face as a society.
Prof. Dr. Mandić told the portal "Vremena" that in the past years, apart from the Faculty of Teachers in Belgrade and Jagodina, he failed to enroll in all other pedagogical or teacher faculties in Serbia. The reasons for that, he says, are, on the one hand, the financial status of teachers, and on the other, the attitude of children and parents towards teachers.
Only a materially satisfied teacher can be an innovator tomorrow, says our interlocutor.
"A teacher who is satisfied with his salary has more time to devote to the child and to the improvement of education and upbringing. If it really happens, that the teacher's salary is higher than the average, it will be very significant. We pointed out earlier that this is the case everywhere in the world", says prof. Dr. Mandic.
The school system also needs a balance in the educational approach, explains our interlocutor.
"Teachers are more concerned with the subject than with the child. In elementary school, this educational function should be, at the very least, equal. Especially in the age up to the fourth grade, where we children develop 80 percent of the character traits of an adult. Valuable attitudes, work habits, the ability to reason logically are developed..." says prof. Dr. Mandic.
Modern technology as support for teachers
Modern technology should be available to students and teachers in order to raise the quality of education and educational work, according to prof. Dr. Mandic.
The Center for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence is located within the Faculty of Teachers in Belgrade. It is available to students for learning and improvement. Students who wish can take additional courses that qualify them to teach computer science from the fifth to the eighth grade.
"Modern technologies are available to teachers to take over part of the teaching and evaluation of students' knowledge. This leaves more time for the teacher to talk with the students, to interact with the children, to develop their critical thinking and creative potential. Especially significant character traits that children retain throughout their lives. Especially nowadays, when parents don't have enough time to devote to it, due to a series of obligations and existential challenges", says prof. Dr. Mandic.
Everyone remembers their first teacher
When it comes to the motivation of young people to decide to become a teacher, prof. Dr. Mandić reminds that the key is the relationship between student and teacher, during which the teacher's role model is also developed.
"After finishing fourth grade, unbreakable bonds are created between students and teachers. We all remember our first teachers, those with whom we took our first steps, learned to read, write, socialize..."
The teaching profession requires a lot of understanding of all aspects of children's development, including cognitive. For those who opt for it, it should be a priority.
"For someone who enrolls in geography or mathematics, school sometimes comes as a forced solution, if there is no employment elsewhere. For our students, school is the first and only wish, and this is very significant because in the era of technology development, and especially artificial intelligence, we will have a series of changes in educational work. They will involve continuous training of teachers in accordance with the developing technology. Imagine someone who came for a year or two to overcome unemployment, he is not interested in those trainings because he does not see his perspective there", says Manidć.
Not everyone is suitable for a teacher
When choosing teaching staff, it is important to keep in mind whether the candidate's personality is suitable for the job of a teacher.
"Some people who are extremely competent in their profession, do not need to be competent as teachers. There are a number of factors, especially didactic-methodical and pedagogical-psychological content, that all our teachers must master in order to be a role model tomorrow and to produce well-educated and well-mannered young people who graduate from school", says prof. Dr. Mandic.
He reminds that if we give more space to education in school, then it is necessary to pay more attention to pedagogical and psychological education in the institutions that train teachers.
"An example of this is the tragedy at the "Vladislav Ribnikar" elementary school. Our idea is that every teacher should be both a pedagogue and a psychologist. To be able to monitor the emotional state of the student. Because when you send a student to a pedagogue or psychologist, it comes to him as a punishment. The teacher should accompany children through educational work, participate and solve problems in a cognitive, but also affective, emotional and developmental sense. What we achieve by the age of 12 is multiplied during puberty and, if necessary, difficult to correct", says prof. Dr. Mandic.
Interactive teaching and digital textbooks
In order to enable teachers to dedicate themselves more to educational work, Prof. Dr. Mandić notes that it is necessary to change the way of evaluating the work, as well as the textbook literature.
"We should not value memorizing facts. Nowadays, it is mostly done like this, oral and written test, the students prepare for the answers and then forget everything. There is no quality knowledge there. Our idea is to work with students through interest, understanding, logical thinking and psychomotor skills. So let's take into account the reproduction of knowledge only afterwards", says prof. Dr. Manidć.
This model would encourage the interaction of teachers with students every day. Students would learn more independently and frustrations before oral and written tests would be avoided.
"Instead of heavy and voluminous textbooks, digital textbooks that students create themselves should be introduced, as in Scandinavian countries. They include about thirty pages of key terms, which a child in that grade should remember forever. Everything else can be learned with the help of new technologies. Through QR codes, hyperlinks, with the help of a network rich in dynamic information, through video clips, animations, 3D simulations," explains our interlocutor.
This model should result in that instead of an active teacher and a passive student, we get an active student and a teacher who communicates equally with them.
Z.S.
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