“Teaching is conceptual and intellectual, abstract and concrete, creative, and sequential. It’s about people but framed through ideas. It’s about content, hearts, minds, the past, the future–whatever we can imagine, teaching and learning are both causes and effects.”-Teach Thought Staff
It has been said that “those who can’t do, teach,” which means that getting a job teaching how to do something is easier than actually doing it. This is obviously a lighthearted jab at one of history’s most noble professions – imagine the hands that carved the Venus of Willendorf or Beethoven composing the Moonlight Sonata – the care, patience, love, and intention that went into it, and now imagine every teacher as an artist responsible for shaping masterpieces whose impact will influence future generations. Every master must pass through the hands of a teacher, meaningful change begins with a teacher, and educational transformation begins with teachers.
Annually on the 5th of October,we celebrate the critical role of teachers in transforming learners’ potential by ensuring they have the tools they need to take responsibility for themselves, for others and for the planet. We call on countries to ensure that teachers are trusted and recognised as knowledge producers, reflective practitioners, and policy partners.It is truly an honour to reflect on the crucial role played by one individual who has devoted their life to what one of our senior resident Pre-Primary teachers (Asmaa Khan) refers to as a “calling, an opportunity to inspire, give the young ones a space where they can dig into their curiosity and explore the world around them.”
The bow from which every arrow springs, a career from which every career is created-the challenges that our educators face should not be solely theirs; it is our collective responsibility to improve the conditions that pave the way to developing our leaders.
The theme of World Teachers’ Day, 2022, “the transformation of education begins with teachers,” is incredibly appropriate. It serves to remind us we are because our teachers are.
In appreciation of our educators we close with the wise words from one of our star educators Ms Ilhaam Patel, “my role as a teacher at Nova Pioneer is to create a safe and exciting environment for my students to develop a passion for acquiring skills and knowledge to make the world a better place in the future. My role is to nurture each individual learner and appeal to their unique interests and personalities so that they can contribute to our ever-changing society. Nova Pioneer has created an environment that allows me to work towards these objectives. We are Greater Together as a school and an organisation, working to develop future leaders and innovators beyond the borders of African countries.”
