Mes­sage from Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes on World Teach­ers’ Day 2019—Oc­to­ber 5.

"On World Teach­ers’ Day, we recog­nise the out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions of the un­sung he­roes who in­spire bound­less cre­ativ­i­ty, con­fi­dence and suc­cess in the lives of their stu­dents. Teach­ers are unique­ly tasked with in­still­ing the joy of learn­ing in their charges and with nur­tur­ing and shap­ing the imag­i­na­tion. Ac­cord­ing to cel­e­brat­ed au­thor and uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor, CS Lewis, The task of the mod­ern ed­u­ca­tor is not to cut down jun­gles, but to ir­ri­gate deserts.

"Al­though teach­ing can be a de­mand­ing, of­ten com­plex un­der­tak­ing, it can al­so be re­ward­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly when stu­dents go on to achieve their great­est po­ten­tial.

"This year, the theme of World Teach­ers’ Day, Young Teach­ers: The Fu­ture of the Pro­fes­sion, high­lights the im­por­tance of en­sur­ing that teach­ing re­mains an at­trac­tive and vi­able op­tion for young peo­ple. If the teach­ing pro­fes­sion is to re­tain and re­new its ap­peal, its struc­ture and ex­ist­ing ped­a­gog­i­cal meth­ods must keep pace with the de­mands of mod­ern tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vances and so­cial trans­for­ma­tion.

"Teach­ers should be well-equipped, suit­ably com­pen­sat­ed and un­der­go con­tin­u­ous pro­fes­sion­al train­ing. Our cur­ric­u­la must re­flect our cul­ture and his­to­ry and con­vey con­tem­po­rary mat­ters of na­tion­al sig­nif­i­cance. Im­por­tant­ly, teach­ers should be sup­port­ed and af­ford­ed due recog­ni­tion for their crit­i­cal role in im­part­ing both aca­d­e­m­ic knowl­edge and emo­tion­al care to their stu­dents.

"On this World Teach­ers’ Day, we cel­e­brate the her­culean ef­forts and dai­ly sac­ri­fices of our ed­u­ca­tors and recog­nise the im­mense val­ue and per­ti­nence of teach­ing to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment."