Professional Codes of Ethics in Teaching

Abstract

Teaching is a noble and respectable profession that nurtures competent professionals, provides gainful living and enhances the prosperity of the people. It implies that teachers are the creative brain-power that educates, trains and empowers the cream of the society. Hence, only the trained and registered teachers who have imbibed adequate subject matter and professional ethics with commitment for moral rectitude, academic excellence and effective service delivery in their day-to-day activities should be allowed in classrooms (Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), 2014). Ethics, as a concept belongs to the realm of moral philosophy. Ethics is referred to simply as the system or science of moral principles, the rules or standards of conduct or moral judgement. A code on the other hand is a system of rules and principles that has been adopted by a society or a class or group of people. From the foregoing definitions, a code of ethics can be considered as short statements of rules and/or principles that have been accepted by a group of people or society togovern certain aspects of their conduct.