Dear Readers,

Happy New Month!

This month is indeed a special one because we are celebrating the most important people in the world: Teachers. It is inarguable they play the most significant role in the holistic development of a person and we believe upon the thought of a teacher there is a specific person, maybe two or more that always stick out, whose impact made a difference in our lives.  They are the earth’s bedrock and foundation, shaping and grooming their students for the next level.

Every year, our heroes without capes are celebrated on 5th of October. Ever since 1994, commemorating the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, UNESCO has provided this platform to honour the teaching profession, their hard work and achievements. This year, the World Teacher’s Day is themed Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession. The day provides the occasion to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, to take stock of achievements, and to address some of the issues central for attracting and keeping the brightest minds and young talents in the profession.

There are, without doubt, considerable challenges to the occupational, social and legal status of the teaching profession worldwide and of course a great decline in the respect for teachers and the profession. Once upon a time, teachers were held in high regard and it was a thing of pride to be referred to as a teacher, but with the current age of social media, the teaching profession offers no glamour for its lifestyle. The entry level into the profession is declining in comparison with numbers of teachers retiring.

Also, in the purview of prominent academics, we are urged to rethink the very notion of ‘expertise’ proposing that technology, artificial intelligence and automation will soon make redundant many human tasks that were once the historic preserve of ‘professions’. While teaching and learning will always offer the greatest rewards as a form of social interaction, it is true that technology is significantly changing how we work and live, even as these technologies raise ethical questions about privacy and how humans connect with each other. Taken together, all of this points to a profession under threat.

In order to meet up with the SDG 4 education goal, over 69 million teachers must be recruited and of this number, 48.6 million new recruits will be needed to replace those who are to leave the profession, according to the UIS Fact Sheet 2016, No.39. However, with education seen as a last resort to make ends meet, young graduates seek high end jobs first.

This leaves the challenge on how to attract fresh graduate which is one of the reasons the Meadow Hall Foundation initiated the Graduate Teacher Trainee Programme – an intensive three month free training aimed at preparing young and passionate graduates for the classroom; equip young entrants into the profession with the latest developments and international best practice for effective teaching and learning and to attract young people into the profession. To read more about this initiative, click here https://meadowhallfoundation.org/our-initiatives/graduate-teacher-trainee-programme/

Since inception, Meadow Hall Foundation has strived to equip teachers especially those from public and low-cost private schools with necessary tools to combat society’s ever evolving structure. In line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, Meadow Hall Foundation believes the road map to achieving quality education is by improving the quality of teachers and this we are continuously doing through our numerous platforms such as, the annual Education Convention, Inspirational Educator Awards (INSEA), Teacher Professional Development Training (TPDT) and many others. To know more about these programmes, please see https://meadowhallfoundation.org/

This month, we will be hosting a teacher training themed; Art for Nation Building.  This training is proposed to train for free, twenty–five (25) passionate teachers who teach children in rural or disadvantaged communities; on practical ways to create fun and colourful instructional/classroom materials, using affordable and accessible materials. We hope that this will help stimulate the creativity of teachers and help enhance educational outcomes. For more information on this training and our upcoming programmes, kindly email info@meadowhallfoundation.org

In conclusion, as we commemorate World Teachers’ Day 2019, we must take time to look at the future of the profession and the role of young teachers in it – taking onboard the changing climate of education and schooling, the need to draw in and retain a new generation of dedicated educators, and to prepare them for the 21st century challenges of ‘teaching in diversity’ and ‘diversity in teaching.

We hope reading this was insightful and look forward to sharing more eventful memories with you.

To Teachers all over the world, YOU ROCK!