• What is the impact of hiring novice teachers while offering incentives for veteran teachers to retire?

Veteran teachers are ‘veterans’ and retiring them is not in the interests of our students. Veteran teachers are needed badly by children, parents, schools and the society. Their age should not be a consideration, as long as they are capable of teaching effectively and the students enjoy their teaching.

One learns to teach with time and experience. The time spent by these veteran teachers in honing their skills is what matters. Such teachers should not retire or be offered incentives to retire. This is callous and detrimental to the interests of students.

Our kids are not guinea pigs to be experimented upon by novice teachers. We can not undo the damage done by novices on young minds. Such damage may be irreparable. Novice teachers are yet to know and learn through experience as to 'What is teaching?', 'How to teach children with different abilities?', 'How to manage classes effectively?', "How to assess learning?' and so many other allied things. They need time and mentoring to mature and grow professionally. The veteran teachers could work as their Buddies, Mentors and Role-models. The novice teachers need to observe veteran teachers at work and learn from their experience.

I have found that Pre-service training of teachers is inadequate and does not equip a teacher with all that the teacher is required to do. Even In-service training and PD is not taken very seriously by all. Hence, there is dire need for continuing with veteran teachers to teach our kids and to help our new teachers to grow professionally.