I find this the opportune moment to put in writing something I have always thought about but haven’t gotten the perfect platform on which it can garner the much needed attention it deserves. Look around or even ask your neighbor if they would have made it in life, not entirely, but to an extent had it not been for a certain teacher that went out of their comfort zone to ensure that they succeeded.
I am sure someone is saying it’s their obligation to do so but how many people in life have executed their responsibility to an extent that they have such a profound effect on the beneficiaries? Teachers do that year on year; I would like to also include lecturers alike in the teacher’s bracket here. World leaders, business leaders, and Professionals’ especially have had teachers behind their success, even school drop-outs that go on to become business leaders will testify to that one moment a teacher taught them something that stuck and was a game changer later on life.
Why don’t we then afford these noble beings within us the much needed respect they deserve, they alongside doctors in my opinion have a huge impact on everyone’s life, not forgetting that even doctors pass through teachers so that leaves us with teachers as the ’makers or breakers’ of a nation, as education is the foundation of any economy’s success or failure.
When I talk about respect, this is what I mean. We don’t need to think further than our own beloved country, Uganda. How many times have you read stories in the media about teachers complaining about late payments or even less pay which pales in significance to fat pay cheques Members of Parliament receive? Do the honorable Members of Parliament efficiently execute their roles as expected during their terms? Or more so do their activities have a huge impact on the societies they serve in comparison to that of teachers to their societies? If you can logically answer those questions then you will understand what I mean by affording teachers much more respect.
Don’t get me wrong, not in any way am I undermining our honorable MP’s work or anything and I say this with all due respect, some Members of parliament are majestic at what they do in fact a good number of them but look at who of the two, teachers and MP’s has a more direct and influential impact on society, then go ahead and compare how society regards both of them. It’s on record that the youth account for the majority of the population, and under whose tutorship will these youth go through if they are to transform the nation as widely expected? Should teachers therefore be running up and down demonstrating about low pay? Shouldn’t it be within the country’s top priorities to ensure their well-being, people that are literally the drivers of the nation? I wonder if I am the only one that has this view of understanding.
I could go on and on but I choose to leave you with food for thought, what have you on an individual basis done to at least appreciate the efforts of one or two teachers that count among the few people that are reason why you are where you at in life?
Mark Agaba. agab300@gmail.com
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