By Alusine Fullah

Invest in our Teachers, and our Children will succeed.” Barack Obama

As a country, perhaps the question is not what is the role of our teachers in nation building, but who are we without our teachers? What memories do we have to fuel our souls if it is not the memory of our diligent and immaculate teachers? Honestly, if Sierra Leone is to be linked/ likened to human body the teachers are the hearts. What is a body without a heart? A human cadaver that is what we are without our teachers. As a country, we need to aware of the significance of our teachers in nation building. Let us design policies and projects that will place them at the zenith of achievement. The tragedy of teachers in Sierra Leone is like the tragedy of the nation rich yet so poor, strong yet so weak.

So many descriptions have been given to our teachers. Some see or call them as liability instead of good asset. Until we make a paradigm shift our perspective of the potentials of teachers to transform this country to an oasis of peace and development remain to us a mirage. In Sierra Leone, our ruff history has forged an incestuous relationship between the word teacher and distance cousins poverty and waiting room for jobless people to connote suffering in the minds of people.

Believe it or not, Teachers are makers of men. They are foundation of all Education, and thus of the whole civilization of mankind, present and future. No nation reconstruction is possible without the active cooperation of the teacher.” The teacher can be rightly called a nation builder. Teachers through their perseverance love and sacrifices have shown us the right path in which great men have built our nation. It is our dear teachers who mould our character, our personality and show us the right direction which leads us to our final destination. Flourishing national development and a society truly prosperous with knowledge all begins from its teachers.

Teachers are very instrumental asset for nation building and are considered the manufacturers of all successful people in the world. A country is considered developed when it has a strong human resource base, and such human capital based is process and prepared by teachers and in order to show the usefulness of teachers the world at large should pay credence to teachers by observing the day set aside for teachers. By so doing that, that manifests the gratefulness and respect we pay to teachers.

There are numerous contributions of teachers towards nation building and for governments to function properly; it is the hand work of teacher who provides competent materials for such government to do efficiently and effectively. Teachers also play key role for institutions like banks, hospitals and court to work efficiently and effectively, and in that situations bank staff like accountants, cashiers and marketers are prepared and processed by teachers.

For a country law system to perform effectively it is as a result of the dedicated and relentless work of teachers who trained the law authorities to adjudicate justice and to be able to perform in their area of study and which enables the justice sector of a country strong. They are people worth of emulating and such of their work is a force to recognize and this recognition can be shown in this celebration to show how important their works are and how society also recognize their remarkable effort in nation’s building.

They also play a great role in building world leaders this is shown in seeing leaders like Obama, Mandela, Mugabe, Ernest Koroma and Maada Bio became great leaders and to be frank with you without their efforts these people mentioned could not have been great, but because of the education weapon instill in them by their teachers their destiny of being leaders became possible.

Their effort is manifested and that is why government introduce the best teachers award to show that their relentless service and dedication is recognized by government and that award also serve as morale booster to the teachers which will put them in high level competition in order for them to be eligible to win the award and this serve as a system to show their relevance in society

Three years ago, President Julius Madaa Bio instructed the Teaching Service Commission (TSC). to set up a “Presidential National Teacher Award” with the sole purpose of ensuring that teachers are being given awards as part of the President’s welfare motivation to those who have contributed greatly toward promoting education for all in the classrooms.

Last year’s (2023) celebration has the highest nominated best teachers’ award which points out their recognition for their service of preparing the workforce of the country and the world at large whose people are working in both in and out of the country who are plying key role in their various places of work.For last year’s celebration, Adama Soko Bangura and Mohamed Bassie Kamara emerged as winners of this year’s Presidential National Best Teachers Award 2023. Each of them took home NL45, 000 plus a piece of land in the Western Area. During this event, Chief Minister David M. Sengeh has also assured teachers of their 15% Salary increase in January 2024.

This day (World Teacher’s Day) annually honors teachers around the globe and celebrates their contributions to shaping the future of their pupils. The International festival marks the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Recommendation – concerning the Status of Teachers. The UNESCO recommendation helped set benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. On October 5, 1994, UNESCO proclaimed that the day would be marked as World Teachers’ Day to celebrate and honour the contribution teachers make in our lives.