“Happy teachers day,” this writer greeted her friend, Ann, hoping to get a “thank you”. Instead the response was “Happy what!”
This ended up being the general response this writer got from every teacher she spoke to on Wednesday which was the World Teachers’ Day.
“I have spent my day at a training session for teachers of science and mathematics,” said a young student teacher, Benazir Mohamed, when asked how she had spent the day.
“Yes I am aware that today is World Teachers’ Day but it doesn’t mean anything to us. We are just doing our work as usual,” said Mohamed when the African News Agency (ANA) spoke to her. She is a teacher at North Eastern Girls High School in Garissa County.
Alex Wambua, a primary school teacher at Mukayauni Primary School in Machakos County, expressed similar sentiment, saying neither he nor his colleagues were aware of the day as a special one for teachers worldwide.
“We have spent the day teaching as usual and nobody has mentioned anything about it being a special day for us,” said Wambua.
Probed about whether he and his colleagues felt appreciated as teachers, Wambua said “a lot of changes” were taking place in the teaching profession, changes, he said that were beneficial to them.
“Our employer, the Teachers Service Commission, has began a process of rewarding teachers well for our efforts and we are starting to also feel appreciated by society in general,” said Wambua, elaborating that salaries were being revised upwards, as well as other benefits such as medical insurance.
A tweet from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) summed up the day’s theme: “Celebrating #WorldTeachersDay if you can read this tweet thank your teachers.”
KICD carried a one-page supplement in the local dailies, outlining the important role teachers play in curriculum reforms and implementation among other education topics.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Foundation (UNESCO), teachers help educate global citizens and so are regarded as global leaders, while one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to ensure “inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”.
UNESCO says teachers have the most difficult job in the world and mostly work with limited resources.
UNESCO says that to show appreciation to teachers, World Teachers Day was created in 1966 and remains a holiday today, celebrated every year on October 5. Although not a typical traditional holiday, UNESCO encourages the world to celebrate and appreciate teachers through conferences, summits, or other gatherings where pertinent teaching issues are discussed.
In Kenya, the day was marked officially by the public teachers’ employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), through a ceremony that recognised and awarded exemplary teachers for their work.
At a ceremony held in Nairobi, TSC promoted 17 teachers and posthumously honored Salah Farah, a deputy head teacher of Mandera Township Primary School, who died while protecting Christians in a bus attack by Muslim militants in January this year in Mandera County. Farah’s family received some money from TSC in his honour.
Among the teachers promoted was Ayub Mohamud, a business studies teacher at Eastleigh High School in Nairobi, Kenya, who also made it to the top 10 for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2016 whose grand finale was held in Dubai earlier this year.
The Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize award, worth US$1million, is widely referred to as the global Nobel Prize for teaching.
Mohamud is active in attempting to combat extremism and prevent radicalisation on both local and national levels. He also established Teachers Against Violent Extremism, an anti-terror network, and is the patron of a grassroots youth empowerment initiative.
Mohamud has helped implement engagement programmes in Kenyan schools and developed a lesson plan teachers can use to incorporate de-radicalisation messages into key subjects such as Islamic Religious Education.
Others promoted were Solomon Koech of Emining Secondary School in Baringo County, after being declared the 2016 Kenya Principal of the Year in June, and Lucy Wangari Mugo of Karatina Girls Secondary School in Nyeri County, also winner of the 2016 Kenya Teacher of the Year Award.
TSC boss, Nancy Macharia, said that teachers who excelled would receive State commendation as directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
