What would you do if I said your child is one of the tens of thousands of students in Hawaii to be taught by an unqualified teacher? While it may seem unbelievable, according to the Department of Education (DOE), there are approximately 508 teachers who are not qualified, meaning they have not gone through teacher training.

The reason behind the hiring of unqualified teachers goes back to Hawaii’s teacher shortage crisis. As of 2018, 1,000 teacher positions are vacant and 352 special education teacher positions are unfilled. Hawaii is facing huge teacher shortages because the teachers here are not staying. Teachers are leaving for many reasons, including pursuing better job opportunities, a lack of support, or leaving to teach on the mainland where they can earn more money.

The shortage of teachers is only becoming an increasingly dire crisis in Hawaii’s educational system — but what are we doing to help the children? As of now, the solution to vacant teaching positions consists of hiring both substitutes and unqualified teachers. The problem with this solution is that it is the children who suffer the most. Students are not receiving the best possible education. Unqualified teachers are typically not as passionate about teaching, therefore, how can unpassionate teachers inspire their students to enjoy learning if they themselves are not passionate?

Another problem with this “solution” is that teachers are like mentors to students and become part of students’ support system. All students seek out guidance, advice and aid from their favorite teachers.

But with teachers and substitutes constantly coming and going, how are students able to form a bond with their teachers?

According to a study about school climate and delinquency, communication, encouragement, participation and perceiving schoolwork as meaningful are all factors that have a protective effect against delinquency (Julia Sandahl, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 2016). Passionate and qualified teachers are not only vital to children’s education, but also to a child’s support system.

Teachers are the ones who encourage students to do better, push students to aim for higher goals, and inspire students to work harder. But without social bonds to teachers, how can students commit to doing better in school or pursuing a higher education?

As a recent graduate from a public high school in Hawaii, I can say that it can be very difficult and frustrating to learn when you have a substitute or unpassionate teacher who does not know what he or she is doing. For example, some substitutes do not even understand how to control a class, creating a chaotic environment that can be challenging to both teach and learn in. As a student, you also are just not motivated to learn or to participate in that type of class environment.

As we can see, substitutes and unqualified teachers are only a temporary solution, but a more permanent solution must be introduced to help both teachers and students. Solutions entail creating incentives to both draw prospective educators in and keep them in the educational system.

Whether these involve increasing teachers’ salary, providing more support for new teachers, or providing scholarships for education-college students, something must be done for the betterment of students’ education.