Mentoring students must not only aim at passing academic subjects, but also develops their personal interests…

In my opinion, the teaching profession is the most rewarding profession on mother earth. Teachers not only have opportunities to impart academic knowledge, but they have the chance to influence, shape the path of and positively challenge and direct the future of many children and young people.

The education profession is a platform in which the role of a teacher is never one-dimensional. The ability to impart knowledge to others is often considered the crux of this occupation, yet teachers are expected to go beyond the realms of what constitutes as a teacher.

Unfortunately, there are lots of missed opportunities within the profession to adequately mentor students for the future. My first headteacher always reminded his teachers that “teaching is a vocation”- a calling from God he would say. Hence, in my formation days as a teacher, I believed that the students I encounter, I meet them for a purpose that is greater than just imparting academic knowledge. Encounters that really resonates that ‘Every Child Matters’.

Teachers are currently distracted from this “calling”, the focus of ensuring that students achieve grades A*-C, and 9 to 5 give teachers nightmares especially when such outcomes are sometimes linked to their career progression.

Teachers often encounter students that have no interest whatsoever in the subjects they teach, yet schools mandate such teachers to magically get those glowing grades. Often, interventions in the form of one-to-one tuition, extra group lessons, detentions to force learnings are enforced. Well marginally, these can occasionally yield results. But it is far better to understand the students’ interests, and mentor from their interests. Often this yields greater results beyond academic success. The former in my opinion frustrate students as school leaders dedicate time to something they really don’t like, just to improve statistics that further bolster league tables.

This is a picture of me and my student some years back when I mentored him through his passion in sport. He was predicted to achieve only three GCSEs. Following my mentoring, he achieved eight GCSE at A*- C grades.

The profession must help struggling students through active mentoring that recognises their passion. When a teenager says to the adult “you don’t understand”, or “you will not understand”, they truly take away the adult’s rights of seniority. I believe that teachers can do more than just teach. It is the job of teachers to mentor students beyond the classroom. School leaders should give many willing teachers the opportunity to do just that.