Teachers: The Nation Builders – By Sultan Alam
Teachers are the backbone of nation building. They play their vital roles in shaping the overall structure of society through nurturing the children-academically, socially and moral aspects. The Holy prophet (PBUH) demonstrated his role in multiple sectors, but he was proud of being a teacher. He said, “Verily, I have been sent as a teacher”. Highlighting the important roles of teachers, Sir John Adam’s believed, “The teacher is the maker of man”. Such religious and secular thoughts are advocate the status of teachers in our societies.
The role of a teacher in today’s world is very complex and diverse. Teachers not only play a crucial role in providing pedagogical content knowledge to students, but also providing intellectual and social development with integrity, being honest and always modeling appropriate conduct in the classroom and in the community. Being a teacher is much more than just accomplishing lesson plans; they also carry the role of effective communicators with a variety of stakeholder constituents, including parents, community-members and within system professionals. They perform these multiple roles by applying strict codes of conduct, and comprehend the grounds and procedures laid by respective education departments.
To commemorate the importance of this greater profession, “Salam Teachers’ Day” is celebrated each year on 5th October to highlight the importance of teachers in our society. This day is assigned to show how the teachers play their vital roles in creating the nation peaceful, knowledgeable and skilled to move with the currents of modern era. This all happens as teachers utilize their energies, time and resources in a tough situation and pay painful efforts. This is really a hard task but teachers being reformers accept this challenging role and develop such strategies which could assist in reshape the nurturing of child.
Education of children is one of the greatest of all services that can be rendered by men to Almighty Allah. The role of a teachers in education system is vital. They are practically the benchmark who decides the quality of education system and hence brings positive changes in the whole world. It is the teacher who decides if the education system is a success or a failure. It is on his/her shoulders that the entire education system rests as s/he single-handedly shapes the generation. To support the role of teacher, someone rightly said that if you want to study the nature of the citizens of the country then meet some teachers and study their nature. After all, the society is a replica of teachers living in it.
Teachers help students transform into respectable human beings with a positive attitude, confidence and motivation to pursue excellence. So, a teacher is no doubt a draftsman of a new generation who determines the quality and future of our tomorrow. Additionally, they are one of the main pillars of a sound and progressive society. They bear the weight and responsibility of teaching and apart from parents, are the main sources of knowledge and values for children.
Being engulfed with such positive roles, ironically the teaching jobs as a profession are not given the due respect that they deserve. We must understand that teaching is the only profession that teaches all the other professions and so, its significance and greatness is much higher. These insights on the role of teachers are quite clearer that they make a remarkable contribution in building our society and therefore its moral obligation of the society to build their esteem at much higher levels.
To fulfil such a beautiful role, there are certain principles endorsing the teachers’ pride. The importance of a teacher as an architect of our future generations also demands that only the best and the most intelligent and competent members of our intellectuals be allowed to qualify for this profession. Unfortunately, being ignored profession, the underachieved and comparatively incompetent people of the society find their way to this profession. Anyone who fails to find an opening in any other walk of life gets into this profession and hastily plays with the destiny of the nation. One of the dominating reasons is the poor salaries for teaching profession than other professions. Ultimately, the leading intellectuals rate this profession as alternate and secondary choice. Additionally, teachers opt other options to earn income and meet their day-to-day essentials. For instance, teachers in rural areas are forced to work in fields, to keep livestock and go for small business after their school time while the teachers in urban areas opt for student coaching or part-time office-based assignments. Similarly, the primary and secondary teachers are particularly at a disadvantage.
In conclusion, the nation as a whole hasn’t understood the role of teachers in its true spirit. In this regard, there is need to revisit the teachers’ status in our society and bring such reforms which could attract the real intellectuals towards this important profession. Obviously, we cannot expect an educational arrangement to deliver the goods unless it has a cadre of competent teachers. For that, the teachers should be entitled to better salaries and better facilities in comparison with other professions. It should be determined that a candidate for this profession possess the innate expertise and capacity for teaching. Simultaneously, all out efforts should be launched to restore the financial and social status of teachers. We do have a practice of awarding the Pride of Performance awards to the people linked with other professions but the outstanding achievements of an upright teacher go unnoticed and are not welcomed. The notable achievements of teachers should also be appreciated at the state level and while evaluating them, their academic and research output should also be considered. This is an important issue demanding immediate and prioritized attention of the educational systems on emergent basis. The electronic and print media can also play a very positive role in this regard. Ultimately, these joint efforts can go a long way towards the prosperous future of our societies and the whole country at large.
