Mohamed Saeed writes that teachers are owed our appreciation and thankfulness for saving the school year.
In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, that no one knows exactly how to manage, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate every teacher for saving the school year for students.
Besides impacting on economies, health and radically changing people's lives, the pandemic grossly affected learning and teaching.
Despite the unprecedented disruption to education, teachers developed novel approaches to teach and connect with students.
We owe these outstanding, resilient and brave teachers our appreciation and thankfulness, like we do other frontline workers such as doctors and nurses.
This contagion has proved to me the interrelated and inter-reliant nature of humanity and that the world is truly a global village. The pandemic brought people closer and taught us life skills such as solidarity, compassion, empathy and the value of collective efforts – giving our shallow lives the true meaning of being human beings.
The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of the virus, masks, sanitisers, lockdowns, Zoom meetings and remote or online learning, to name some of our trials.
When people look back at 2020, we will realise that these challenges gave us a new perspective on life.
Hence, I believe together with thanking teachers and acknowledging students who have worked so hard, the best teacher award should go to... Covid-19 in the category of life skills education.
- Mohamed Saeed, Pietermaritzburg
