A virtual tribute to teachers

“A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.” -Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

A teacher is a harbinger of knowledge and wisdom. They are an epitome of nation-builder as they inculcate young minds with knowledge and bring out the best in them. They show us light and guide us towards the destination of our success. To celebrate the greatness and gratitude of their presence in our lives, we have marked 5th September as the day to give a tribute to our teachers. The reason for its celebration on this particular day is to commemorate the birth anniversary of a great scholar, a Bharat Ratna awardee and India’s first Vice-President and second President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

If a doctor saves lives then a teacher creates one. Teaching is one of the most important professions as the future depends on it. But it is not bereft of the difficulties. Teachers face a lot of problems while pursuing their profession. As parents hand over their children to the teachers, they become their responsibilities. Students spend nearly 6-7 hours in the school and the schools practically become their second home. There are currently 95,07,123 teachers actively working to develop future citizens. There are 48.76 lakh female teachers and 46.30 lakh male instructors among these. The total number of pupils enrolled in schools in India is 26,52,35,830.Teachers have a lot of responsibilities like keeping the records of the performance of their students, strategizing a proper schedule, understanding the cognitive difficulties of children and working towards helping them. They also need to form a good relationship with the parents and cooperate with them to make them understand about strengths and weaknesses of their kids. They are also required to send feedback of children at regular intervals.

Here are some difficulties faced by teachers:

• Every child is unique and has a different pace of learning, understanding and grasping the information delivered by the teacher. It is the responsibility of the teacher to take into account every student's capability and analyse their growth, development and deliver their teachings accordingly. Interaction between students and teacher is a necessary factor to form a healthy bond between them. Building positive relationships with pupils can also benefit teachers. Within five years, 25-40% of new teachers are likely to depart the teaching profession. Positive relationships with pupils, on the other hand, can minimise this number and demonstrate to instructors how their profession affects people's lives.A teacher should be sufficiently approachable and amiable so that the students can share their difficulties without hesitation. 
• It is a difficult task for teachers to review each and every student as properly as possible and provide them with healthy remarks so that they can improve on their weak points. Despite projections a few years ago that job growth would be 7% over the following ten years, the actual growth to 2028 is only 4%.
• According to teaching career data, postsecondary teaching roles will expand the most — by 9%Any negligence towards slow learners can lead to their deteriorating performance. Therefore, a teacher must be vigilant and keep a record of all students without any exceptions. 
• Dealing with different students and their parents, teachers sometimes end up neglecting their own household responsibilities. Managing household work and professional life can be very difficult. Therefore, teachers have it tough to balance everything in a proper way. 

Due to the present scenario of the pandemic, teachers have to deal with an additional set of problems such as:

• Some teachers are not acquainted with today’s technology and thereby face plenty of problems while handling online classes and dealing with presentations. 
• They have to prepare notes for the students and also make sure that students understand in the online classes regularly without any difficulties.
• They also have to deal with different problems faced by students regarding online classes and try their best to solve them. 
• Due to the pandemic situation, they had to risk their lives by going forward to correct the answer sheets of the students as the career of the students depend on it. 

This teacher’s day let us give a tribute to our teachers by bestowing upon them all the love and care, for they have been the pillar of our success and their teachings always guide us through different phases of life.

Teachers are the unsung heroes that strive each day to educate the children, influence their hearts towards a greater good and teach them good values. Teaching is the most influential job. Their values and wisdom are passed down to generations. A teacher is self-sacrificing, they give up everything for their students and want nothing more than the success of their students. We become who we are because of all those individuals who guide us to reach our goals and so we should be grateful to them. It should be a must to share a message of acknowledgement to each and every teacher who has crossed our path. A small wish from their students can light up their hearts. Every year teacher’s day is celebrated in schools and institutions with a lot of special performances organized by the students to give a tribute to their favourite teachers. They sing, dance, perform plays and even caricature their favourite teachers with a motive to repay them for all the hard work they have done. 

The pandemic is sure a let-down as hundreds and thousands of teachers are working day and night to provide proper education to their students but students’ hands are tied this teacher’s day due to the lockdown and prohibition of any social gatherings. It may be impossible to meet them physically but technology has provided a means of communication through virtual meetings. Parents can help their children to connect with their teachers virtually through group video calls, children can engage themselves in making cards and poems for their teachers and mail them with the help of their parents. Along with the parents, they can make entertaining videos of their messages and send it to their teachers. Parents can cooperate with other parents and reach out to all the teachers so that no one gets left out. All these little efforts may not seem enough to repay our teachers but these things can surely make them happy. 

Quoting the words of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.” A teacher stirs the mind of the young ones to instil curiosity and this curiosity leads to innovations and inventions.