By: Amb. Salahuddin Choudhry
One Book, One Pen, One Child, and One Teacher Can Change the World.
Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Laureate
In a wonderful world of ours – especially in the context of education, guidance to life and development – teachers make the most of our lives. As life begins, the parents teach and guide the child to learn how to speak & walk, a tutor coaches him/her into reading & writing as they grow up, and a teacher imparts knowledge and guides them becoming youth and adults and helps them to take charge of their lives as professionals.
To recognize and highlight the dedicated teachers and their selfless services in our world, the United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – in support of world leaders – came about to designate a calendar day to the observe as world teachers day.
World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is an international day held annually on 5th October.
Set up in 1994, the Day commemorates the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the status of teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world. This recommendation outlines standards relating to education personnel policy, recruitment, and initial training as well as the continuing education of teachers, their employment, and working conditions. World Teachers’ Day aims to focus on “appreciating, assessing and improving the lot of educators of the world” and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching.
Also, these normative instruments set benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and working conditions.
The Day is celebrated to pay tribute to the teachers, express love for teachers as they play pivotal role in character and nation building. It is co-convened in partnership with ILO, UNESCO and Education International; this year, the celebration is for a week-long series of virtual events throughout the world.
The 2020 World Teachers’ Day theme is: “Teachers: Leading in crisis, re-imagining the future”. The Day provides the occasion to celebrate teaching profession worldwide, take stock of achievements, and draw attention to the voices of teachers, who are at the heart of efforts to attain the global education target of leaving no one behind at any time.
The UNESCO cites that everyone can help by celebrating the profession, by generating awareness about teacher issues and by ensuring that teacher respect is part of the natural order of things. Schools and students, for instance, prepare an occasion for teachers during this day.
The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 4 on Education, recognizes teachers (Target 4.c) as key to the achievement of the 2030 Education Agenda. The WTD provides an annual occasion to take stock of achievements and raise awareness around the challenges facing teachers and the role of teachers in the achievement of the global education targets.
The World Teachers Day – Purpose.
Since 1994, the goal of 5th Oct. Teachers Day celebration has been consistent: to honour educators’ associations around the world; acknowledging, evaluating and enhancing the instructors of the world and to give a chance to consider the issues identified with educators and the teaching process in general. Its main purpose is to prepare to encourage instructors and to guarantee that the requirements of future times & periods would be kept to be met by educators. According to UNESCO, World Teachers’ Day bespeaks as a token of massive mindfulness, comprehension and gratitude showed for fundamental commitment of educators making advance in teaching.
It is the Education International (EI) organization that believes that World Teachers’ Day needed to be globally perceived and celebrated across the world. EI also trusts that the standards of the 1966/97 suggestions had to be taken into consideration for its implementation in as many countries as possible in as many manners probable.
More than 100 nations celebrate the World Teachers’ Day globally. The EI efforts and with them 401 associations have added to this broadly seen understanding. Continuously, EI leads an open mindfulness crusade to feature the commitments of the entire teaching comradeship.
Teachers play an immensely valuable role in society with learning being an essential part of life and human development. This certainly provides a wonderful chance to celebrate the profession on an international level.
The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the challenges greatly faced by already over-extended education systems throughout the world. It is no exaggeration to say that the world is at a crossroads and, now more than ever, we must work with teachers to protect the right to education and guide it into the unfolding landscape brought about by the pandemic.
The issue of teacher leadership in relation to crisis responses is both timely and critical in terms of the contributions teachers have made to provide remote learning, support vulnerable populations, re-open schools, and ensure that learning gaps are plugged. The discussions surrounding WTD will indeed address the role of teachers in developing resilience and forging the future of education and the teaching profession to the desirable extent.
In view of the present situation, in 2020, the celebrations have taken place online. The World Teachers’ Day planned the opening ceremony and UNESCO-Hamdan Prize Awards Ceremony on 5 Oct., and the Closing Ceremony on the 12th of October; additional series of national, regional and global events throughout the week are also in the lineup.
Joint Statement from UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF and Education International:
“In this crisis, teachers have shown, as they have done so often, great leadership and innovation in ensuring #LearningNeverStops, that no learner is left behind. Around the world, they have worked individually and collectively to find solutions and create new learning environments for their students to allow education to continue. Their role advising on school reopening plans and supporting students with the return to school is just as important.”
It is no denying the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic played a significant challenge for teachers. As of end-March, all schools, nurseries and colleges had to shut down in Pakistan, and crucial exams were called off. A major global event with unprecedented effects, this caused enormous pressure on teachers. Many were compelled to adapt new alternative ways of teaching and taking care of their students. Parents at homes had to become teachers, helping their children to learn amongst compelling toss & turns and other priorities which they faced in those situations.
Surely, the Word Teachers’ Day today carries more importance than ever before. Together we need to celebrate their huge value to children, teenagers and adults when the world is rapidly changing and largely unstable, having no sure future.
At a time when education systems usually remain under-funded, over-extended or not well- organized, World Teachers’ Day mostly concerns the protection of teachers. It seeks to raise awareness of their rights and equal opportunities to education for all – not selective, not undermined.
World Teachers’ Day in Pakistan:
The Day has been observed throughout the Pakistan and the world on Monday with respect & in dignity. With this year’s theme for the Day being “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Re-imagining the Future”, different orgs and NGOs arranged to commemorate the event online through webinars & video-net. The Day would continue to be observed with various activities for a week from October 5th to 12th, especially to pay tribute to our respected teachers, express love for them as they play pivotal role in character and nation building in every institution in all parts of the country.
CONCLUSION:
The world of teachers – and with them their pupils – for us all is unique in that it remains vibrant with fantastic people called teachers & mentors who make the lives of students full whom they give lessons to learn and guided education to form character toward fullness and betterment of life. The world is full of so many of stories of teacher-student relationships which are both inspiring and exemplary.
This year particularly has been the most eventful in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic, and there must be many teachers who have made big difference in their roles. And, as a tribute to our great teachers inspiring us all, so many stories will be rampant in every nook & corner, every school, college and other educational institutions that we could share and learn from.
One such story goes in our town – with the pandemic causing a lot of negativity and discomfort – where an IT teacher decided to set his class homework that would make people smile.
Haroon Khan, 14, decided to make a stop-motion animation video, called ‘The Charming Thief’. Very excited, his father soon afterwards posted this online to a fantastic viewership of over 800 thousand. Being inspired, Haroon was prompted to create more video-shorts, with all proceeds going to his local hospital. So much was his incentive drawn from his IT teacher that he soon went for a start-up club turned later into a business enterprise.
In short, “The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher”. The right to education cannot be achieved without the right to trained and qualified teachers, simply said.
Here, it will be worth the mention for the Day-Spring readership who may like to see a sonnet-poem, captioned: “Teacher Par Excellence” which is an ode to Late Mr. Zafar Alam, my most favourite teacher from our PAF Public School, Sargodha, with whom I had shared limitless stories through my academic career-building in matters such as public speaking, stage-performance, comedy show, acting, aero-modelling, and my first hands on harmonium & tabla that led to formation of a music band !!!
ACRONYM OF TEACHER
T – Tender / Talented/ Tolerant / Terrific
E – Elegant / Energetic / Empathetic / Erudite
A – Admirable/ Able/ Awesome/ Ascending
C – Caring / Charming / Cheerful / Consoling
H – Honest / Helpful / Honourable / Hardworking
E – Enthusiastic / Excellent / Efficient / Encouraging
R – Respectable/ Responsible / Remarkable/ Receptive
The writer is a Rotarian and former senior diplomat. He can be reached on [email protected]; @SaladinCh