A grade one teacher at the St Michael's School in Bloemfontein, Lee-Anne Thompson, says her learners are similar to her own children and they renew her passion for teaching every morning. 

Thompson says being a teacher is unique as teachers practically raise other parents' children and mould them to be ready for the future.

“I think we’ve gone through a very difficult time with the Covid-19 pandemic. We should just keep on believing in ourselves and know that what we are doing is our best and that we are giving so much back to everyone else,” says Thompson.

Thompson says Covid-19 and teaching online was a problem for many teachers. “I think, as teachers, the feedback we get from our learners is important. When you do online teaching you do not get practical feedback from the learners, so the interaction we get from the children, face to face, is very important to us as teachers,” says Thompson.

According to en.unesco.org, International Teachers Day commemorates the “anniversary of the adoption of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Unesco's 1966 recommendation concerning the status of teachers, which sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching, and learning conditions.”

OFM News/Blaine Jones