UNESCO has been celebrating World Teachers’ Day on October 5 since 1994. According to UNESCO, World Teachers’ Day represents token of the awareness, understanding and appreciation that the teachers put in for the development of any nation.
Education International (EI) strongly believes that World Teachers’ Day should be internationally recognized and celebrated around the world. EI also believes that the principles of the 1966 and 1997 recommendations should be considered for implementation in all nations. Over 100 countries observe World Teachers’ Day. The efforts of Education International and its 401 member organisations have contributed to this widely spread recognition. Every year, EI launches a public awareness campaign to highlight the contributions of the teaching profession.
All that I have achieved in my life is because of teachers, in my school, college, and the university, others such as my parents. The dreams begin with teacher who believes in you, who push and lead you to the next level, sometimes poking with the blunt stick called truth. Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of everyone. Today, we require ideal teachers who act as bridges, inviting their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own. A teacher as a leader is ever more important than one can imagine. They have the power to help people become winners. An ideal teacher is a thesaurus of knowledge to quench the curiosity of the young mind. Good teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives. A teacher is not someone who teaches, but someone who inspires to give the best. Benjamin Franklin rightly says: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
Teachers can be a living example to their students; not that teachers should look for students to idealise them. The quality of the relationships that students have in a class with their teachers is important to their success. The fall of social and moral values is a great dilemma today, which teachers handle on a daily basis, but the schools intervention has taken a toll on the role of teachers.
GHAFOOR TAHIR,
Lahore, October 4.