{"id":32827,"date":"2021-10-05T08:12:56","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T04:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=32827"},"modified":"2021-10-05T08:12:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T04:12:56","slug":"happy-world-teachers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/happy-world-teachers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy World Teachers\u2019 Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

to all our teachers and gurus for helping to shape our destinies<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/span>Say Thank You! on World Teachers’ Day. Pic – Working Mother<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A communiqu\u00e9 from the Ministry of Education announces that today, 5th October, will be a public holiday for all educational institutions. Interestingly, the Unesco website about this annual event since 1994 notes \u2013 in a list of \u2018Ten facts about World Teachers Day\u2019 \u2013 that \u2018World Teachers\u2019 Day is a global observance. It is not a public holiday.\u2019 But here as far as I know it has always been a public holiday. Thank goodness that health services are classified as an essential service, otherwise one can well imagine what would happen to patients if World Doctors\u2019 Day were to be declared a public holiday! Just my two-penny stray thought\u2026to lighten our mood in these days of pandemic anxiety if not gloom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aptly, the theme of World Teachers\u2019 Day 2021 is \u2018Teachers at the heart of education recovery<\/strong>,\u2019<\/strong> presented by the United Nations (UNESCO) as the theme for teachers\u2019 day<\/a>\u00a0\u2018in respect of their determined and diligent efforts in the crucial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.\u2019 <\/strong>It may be noted that the theme for 2020 was \u2018<\/strong>Teachers: Leading in crisis, re-imagining the future.\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Like every other sector of human activity, education too has been forced to re-imagine itself to face the abrupt challenges that had been posed by the Covid crisis. In both education and medicine, the major problem was how to ensure safe contact between doctor and patient, teacher and student. New strategies had to be worked out to deliver care and educational contents respectively. Used to working under pressure and in emergency or urgent situations, for doctors the issue was about being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of patients flooding the healthcare facilities, which meant working long hours wearing cumbersome protective gear and being away from family, as well as being directly exposed to a high risk of catching the infection \u2013 which many did, and equally many succumbed to. <\/span><\/p>\n

For teachers and students, it was the other way round: working at home, in the family setting, which posed different types of problems, especially for the students, in particular the younger ones in primary and lower secondary forms with working parents. Meals had to be available, and concentration and focus were obviously not the same when facing the screen as when interacting live with the teacher in class. <\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder therefore that students of all ages were very happy to get back to their normal school environments once the decision was taken, meet up with their friends and teachers, and take part in their routine \u2018contact\u2019 activities, wearing mask. Was the excitement the same for teachers? It\u2019s for them to answer\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoom learning needed some initiation for both teachers and students, and is now here to stay for good as an integral part of learning and teaching methodology. What have remained unchanged, though, are the basic goals of education, namely: <\/span><\/p>\n