DIVINE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN TEACHER: THE CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

This descriptive research examines the roles of teachers in the Nigerian society. It is aimed at exposing the identity and responsibilities of a trained teacher in a rather low income and ethically maleficent population seeking liberation from a self-inflicted corruption. Here many people take to the teaching profession for its economic values and as a means of survival than the desired human development. It also serves as a wake-up call to the Catholic teachers to live up to their missionary mandate of communicating Christ via their profession. To accomplish this all important tasks, the researcher critically examined the identity of the teacher and the teaching profession, their services to education for human wholistic development, the authority of Christ as the Teacher par Excellence, the roles of the Church and Catholic teacher as well as some critical challenges of the teaching profession in Nigeria. The researcher therefore discovered that the teacher must be properly trained to understand and willfully accept their proper roles in the society as mentors and guides to their students; that education is for human development and can only be realised with a proper blend of the physical and spiritual needs of man which Christianity and the catholic church has significantly advocated most recently. To continue to lead this effort therefore, catholic teachers should sustain their desires for continuous learning and self- improvement as well as imitate Christ as light to their societies. This study finally suggests that teachers should be properly remunerated and motivated to enable them focus on their duties and not give in to activities that might hamper their desired successes. They should also value their profession in order to protect its ethics and improve their overall ratings and image in the society.