Since 1994, October 5 has been celebrated as World Teachers’ Day by various countries to commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendations Concerning the Status of Teachers.
It must, however, be noted that some countries honour their teachers on different dates for one reason or another.
For instance, in Albania, it is marked on March 7 to celebrate the opening on March 7, 1887 of the first school in that country where lessons were taught in the Albanian language.
Countries also organise various events to honour or appreciate their teachers.
For example, Portugal has been celebrating the day on May 18 as a holiday since 1899, whereas Russia, like Ghana and over 100 other countries, celebrate on October 5 as a day when students of schools, from the basic to the tertiary level, present their teachers with flowers, hold parties, and perform plays, among other activities.
Yesterday Ghana joined countries that mark October 5 as World Teachers’ Day to honour its educators, who can be described in a sense as pillars of education because of their pivotal role in education.
Celebrating the day on the global theme ‘The transformation of education begins with teachers’, the country awarded some teachers.
The National Best Teacher received GH¢300,000 cheque for a three bedroom apartment; the first runner-up a brand new pick up whilst the second runner up, a saloon car.
It is interesting that of the top three teachers for 2022, two are women, Madam Stella Gyimah Larbi and Madam Fati Issifu.
The achievements of these two hardworking noble women should prompt their fellow female teachers that they have proven it wrong the perception that Ghanaian female teachers cannot match the males in performance.
With that said, the Ghanaian Times would like all Ghanaian teachers to take their work seriously because the situation where even Junior High School students and products cannot read or manipulate simple figures must be of great concern to teachers first and foremost.
It becomes more worrying when the assessment shows that private school pupils do better in reading, writing, language, number work and science than those in the public schools whose teachers are better remunerated.
The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service must see this as a concern and amend things to rectify the situation.
Many are those who could not pursue further education because of poor performance at the basic level especially, because their teachers did not care about them and so left them to their fate.
Teachers must seriously take into account the theme for their day this year and begin to transform their own attitude to work, including taking a new view of the pupils or students, a view of helping them to build the foundation for a future that would bring transformation in all sectors of the country’s economy to ensure its proportional development.
They should remember the government’s transformational agenda that hinges on the training of the people to be creative, innovative, critical thinkers and technologically astute to lead the forward match of the country’s development.
We, however, want to appeal to the Ghanaian public and the government to accord teachers the respect, honour and all the support they deserve for their unique role in national development.
Congratulations to all Ghanaian teachers on your special day!
