akuperma:
You talk of the cup being half empty or full. Your handicap is that you are addressing the issue from a statistical point. I happen to be quite involved in chinuch, and I believe the statistics are the opposite direction, but I won’t get into that debate here. The problem, which is certainly not uncommon, is that we have rebbeim in our yeshivos whose performance warrants termination. We can conjure up a list of excuses, the challenges in finding other employment, the poor salaries, the supply-demand issue, etc. We are still left with a classroom with a rebbi that cannot do the job, and this will impact negatively on all.
One problem, rather off the track here, is that our entering rebbeim are inexperienced, untrained, and lack knowledge how to manage a classroom. Truly, a good curriculum with a well planned lesson will result in a rather well managed class. But unless someone knows how to do that, the alternative method is some version of discipline. There certainly is a role for that, but it has become the majority classroom tool, which it is not intended to be. This neophyte rebbi will likely resort to that approach. While it may contribute to decorum in the classroom, it is actually detrimental to the education. The average talmid who gets punished is more likely to associate learning with negativity. The mission of instilling אהבת התורה in such a talmid is doomed.
I don’t want to get into that subject more deeply, as it probably deserves its own forum. But the underperforming rebbi is more apt to use other methods to “make his job easier”. And considering that this will not be done by giving a better and more interesting lesson, it will be in the direction of behavioral control and management. The result is not just poor education, but poor preparation for future learning, and perhaps a negative association. Yes, the talmid can be harmed by the poorly performing rebbi.
Putting the numbers to the side, we have Reb Ploni here who is underperforming in Yeshiva Enkas Mesaldecho. The dilemma is this person, not the broader issue of how many such rebbeim there are. How would you guide this puzzled menahel to handle the situation?