Basseterre, St Kitts; 5 October 2012: It is often contested, with varying degrees of fervour, as to which profession is the ‘best’. Misguided a notion as this is, there are many who often spend more time seeking to flaunt one particular occupational trajectory over another, missing the point that all skill sets are required to make a society function effectively.
There are occasions, however, when we are given cause for pause, to recognise the unique role played by some professions in the development of societies. Today, 5 October 2012, we have one such occasion being the celebration of World Teacher’s Day.
World Teachers’ Day serves as a watershed moment when, as a people, we can recognise one of the most noble of professions, that of teaching. It is in this vein that the Members of the Jamaican Kittitian (JamKit) Association would wish to take a moment in acknowledging, highlighting and praising teachers for their singularly formative role in the development of our human race!
Our efforts in this undertaking are prompted by the fact that the world continues to work towards its Millennium Development Goals, among which a particularly important one is the realisation of Universal Primary Education by the year 2015. While the support of governments, NGOs and various other entities is paramount to the successful accomplishment of this objective, there can be little meaningful dispute of the fact that the role of teachers is quintessential to the success of the process.
Teachers remain at the forefront of the efforts to elevate the quality of life for people around the world, by moulding minds that thereby develop communities, improve productivity and reinforce socio-political stability. Particularly important is the positive impact being felt globally by the increasing effort to educate women, who have remained a highly disenfranchised population in many countries.
The Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis has the benefit of a very meaningful gender integration of its education system, and commendation is deserved for the initiative shown in implementing new strategies for improving education output, such as experimenting with single-sex classes to facilitate different modes of learning. Our teachers have been instrumental in this process and deserve our continued respect.
As our Association stands in solidarity with teachers across the world and here in the Federation, we take special note of the fact that the role of male teachers has become more worthy of highlighting than before. As the nation continues to grapple with the challenges facing an increasingly marginalised young male population, the significance of positive male role models cannot be overstated. We use this opportunity to laud those who have been contributing meaningfully in this regard, and sound a clarion call to other males to embrace the scholastic passage of knowledge from generation to generation, as facilitated by teaching.
Our Association hopes that this period of reflection will provide a setting within which teachers can be provided with the improved remuneration, facilities and systems through which to deliver even better service to our people, especially our children. In the same vein, it is hoped that our teachers will consider themselves called to even higher standards of pedagogical and affective output. We trust that our Association’s stand for teachers will in time be a meaningful and effective one.
One Love.
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