A Teacher's Duties, Code of Conduct and Professional Problems

Anyone who takes on a responsibility in society, whether an ordinary worker or an official, is given certain rights that come with the post. A right never comes alone, though. Whoever receives it must also carry out the work and duties attached to it. A ward chairperson has the right to make decisions for the ward, and the duty to serve the people who live there. A doctor has the right to treat patients, and the duty to take responsibility for their health.

A teacher is exactly this kind of responsible official. A teacher has to work loyally for the profession, and has to follow the instructions given in the education Acts, regulations, rules and by-laws made by the federal, provincial and local governments. So a teacher is not free to do whatever they like. They are professionals who work inside the laws made by all three levels of government.

The main work of a teacher is to bring the subject matter to students honestly and in a suitable way inside the classroom. The teacher is also in charge of creating a good environment for learning in the school, and of making teaching and learning organised, planned and practical. Whether the lesson happens in a classroom or in a laboratory, teaching students effectively is the teacher's duty.

Picture a science teacher before a laboratory class. She gathers the materials beforehand, plans which group will do what, and after the experiment talks with the students about what they found out. Her teaching is organised, it was planned in advance, and it is practical because the students learn by doing. That is what the duty of effective teaching looks like in real life.

A teacher plays a big part in arranging textbooks, teaching materials and the classroom environment properly. A teacher should always be positive towards students and be able to guide them. Keeping a friendly relationship with parents is also the teacher's job, because a child learns best when the home and the school work together.

Teaching is not just a job to be done for a salary. A teacher should be fully devoted to finding ways to make teaching and learning work better. Only a teacher who is loyal to the profession and content in it can guide students well. So a teacher should work with pride in the profession and high morale, and should keep changing with the times.

Putting all of this together, a teacher in the teaching profession has these main duties and responsibilities:

• Go to the place where they are posted and do the work assigned to them.
• Treat teaching as interesting and enjoyable work, not as a burden.
• Encourage obedience, discipline, goodwill, cooperation, good conduct, sympathy, patience and honesty.
• Be ready to take on extra responsibilities that come up while working in the school.
• Keep a positive way of thinking and a spirit of service.
• Take part eagerly in professional discussions, seminars, meetings and interaction programmes.
• In teamwork, always think 'we' rather than 'I'.
• Treat students positively, never giving them physical or mental punishment.

To carry out these duties, a teacher needs three kinds of qualities: professional, personal and social. A teacher should be able to become a source of ideals and inspiration for students and for society. A teacher's influence does not stop at the classroom door. The students sitting in a class today become tomorrow's doctors, engineers, farmers, business people and leaders. Because the teacher shapes the workforce that every sector of the country needs, the teacher must be a model person in society.

Using one's rights and carrying out one's duties both need a fixed set of rules. As in any profession, teaching should have a system that rewards good work and punishes bad work. Based on the qualities, work and duties expected of a teacher, the eighth amendment of the Education Regulation 2059 BS, made in 2071 BS, sets out a code of conduct that every teacher must follow.

Under this code of conduct, a teacher must follow these rules:

• Come at the fixed time regularly and sign the attendance register, noting the time of arrival and departure.
• Never try to put political or other improper pressure on anyone in order to get personal gain in matters of one's own service.
• Treat study and teaching as the main goal, with the aim of making students capable citizens.
• Encourage obedience, discipline, goodwill, cooperation, good conduct, sympathy, patience and good character.
• Never spread feelings against any language community or any religion among other teachers or students.
• Never take up work outside the school where one is employed without approval from the management committee or the education authority.
• Awaken national feeling through the school or educational institution and work to bring emotional unity to the country.
• Never hold demonstrations, lock people in or surround offices in a way that harms the sovereignty and integrity of Nepal, disturbs peace and security, foreign relations or public decency, shows contempt of court, or blocks and opposes any office or officer carrying out duties set by law.

A rule means little unless someone checks whether it is being kept. So the Education Regulation names who must keep a record of whether the code is followed. For teachers, the head teacher keeps this record. The head teacher is not above the code either, and for the head teacher the record is kept by the school management committee. The Education Regulation also requires that when a teacher breaks the code, the details are sent to the body concerned.

Teaching is thought of as an ideal profession. In developed countries, the state and society give teachers great respect. In Nepal the situation is disappointing, although it is slowly getting better. However noble the profession is, it has not been able to stay free of problems.

The first big problem is linked to science and technology. Fast changes in science and technology have put teachers in most schools in Nepal in real difficulty. The problem shows itself in several ways:

• Not every teacher is familiar with science and technology.
• Even in city schools that have technology, it is not being put to proper use.
• Social media keeps students busy with things other than their studies.
• Heavy mobile phone use has made students withdrawn, and more and more of them cannot mix with friends, family and society.

All of this harms how students learn. Once a student's attention has drifted away from study, even a hardworking teacher struggles to get good results. This is why teaching has become such a challenging profession today.

Nepal has a fairly good system of teacher training. The trouble is that what teachers learn in training does not reach the classroom, because the conditions for using it there have not been created, so classroom activities remain unsatisfactory. The number of students is another problem. Some classes are packed far beyond their capacity, while others have very few students. Either way, managing the classroom becomes hard.

In community schools, students often do not attend class regularly, and many drop out partway through. Teachers in community schools also face these problems:

• Some teachers know too little about the curriculum.
• Textbooks do not reach every school on time.
• The course cannot be finished within the year.
• Teaching and learning do not happen regularly.

Because of these, results are weak, and weak results lower the respect people have for the teaching profession. These are the main problems that community school teachers face in their work.

Nepal's education system runs on a dual policy, and this is behind many of teachers' professional problems. Schools are run in two separate ways: community and private, or government and institutional. The pay and facilities teachers receive are not the same across these two kinds of school.

The problems that community school teachers face above are faced by private school teachers too. On top of them, private school teachers have one more problem: the pay and facilities they receive. Private schools are not all alike:

The people who run private schools do not seem to care much about their teachers' job conditions and job security. The government, too, has not paid proper attention to improving the policies and rules for these teachers' pay and facilities, or to putting such rules into practice.

These are the measures needed to solve the problems in the teaching profession:

• Make a curriculum that uses local resources and means, so that it creates jobs inside the country.
• Get textbooks to schools in every place on time.
• Make sure every teacher knows teaching techniques, and create the conditions to use them.
• Use technology-friendly teaching.
• Adopt effective methods of classroom management.
• Create an environment in which students attend regularly.
• Create conditions that carry teacher training into the classroom.
• Pay attention to the physical and educational environment of the school.
• Give teachers practical, hands-on training.

The table below shows how these measures answer the problems described earlier. A single problem can need more than one measure.

Knowing the subject well is not enough to make a good teacher. A good teacher also needs personal, professional and social qualities, and only a teacher with these qualities can fully carry out their duties. Teaching is an ideal profession, yet it is not free of problems. To solve them, the government must make suitable policies and rules and put them into practice. Community schools need proper programmes that make students attend regularly. Those who run private schools must deal with their teachers' problems and improve the school's buildings and facilities. And teachers themselves must keep updating their teaching skills as times change.