My Teacher, My Hero – A Worldwide Celebration of Teacher’s Day

Teachers will always be heroes not just in the eyes of students, but the whole world!

World Teacher’s Day was celebrated all around the world yesterday, October 5 with the theme dubbed as “gender equality”.

World Teacher’s day is observed every 5^th day of October since the year 1994. This was the exact date selected to give tribute on the day in 1966 when United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) signed a recommendation aiming to emphasize the important role of teachers in imparting quality education to learners. From then on, it has become an annual celebration with teachers all over the world honored for being a member of a noble profession even though the pay rarely commensurate to the tasks, responsibilities and expertise required.

This year’s global theme, “Teachers for Gender Equality,” seeks to promote the addition of more women teachers so there will be higher enrolment rates for girls. The advocacy does not mean to malign the male gender but since two-thirds of the world’s uneducated and untaught are women, according to UNESCO, this campaign would somehow make the gender balance especially in the teaching field.

Becoming a teacher used to be a little girl’s dream. At an early age, their teachers have become role models aside from their mothers. But, as these little girls grow up, the reality of a teacher’s job bites, making them do the big shift of finding a more lucrative job.

The reality creeps in as she sees her role model leaving the country to teach children of different race, or worse, work as a domestic helper in a foreign land. Seeing that her teacher now has a better life with a prosperous household to boot all because of a work abroad makes her think twice if teaching in the Philippines could really give her a decent food on the table and support a family.

Given the above scenario, Filipinos must be more appreciative of teachers who opt to stay in the country to be of service to Filipino students. Filipino teachers have truly given justice to what a noble profession is and should be – continuously honing and shaping the youth to become globally competitive and be the best that they can be.

However, we must also realize that gender balance is not really the issue. The main problem is the lack of funds in improving teachers’ compensation. The under appreciation for the expertise, dedication and effort of teachers’ work IS the MAJOR problem. And unless the government works its way to provide to what is truly due for teachers, they can only expect educators to fly out of the country and end up with jobs totally not connected to their educational background, passion and life.

So, to teachers all around the world; accept our appreciation and gratitude for a job VERY WELL DONE. It’s not yet too late! Send your teacher a note or card of appreciation. Thank a teacher, your teacher(s) today.   

photo: facebook.com