The 2012 World Teachers Day celebration has been marked with
a call on teachers to be prepared for training and retraining in modern
teaching methodology.

One of such calls came from the Rivers State Commissioner
For Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi, in an address presented at the 2012
World Teachers’ Day celebration in Port Harcourt, Friday.

Dame Alice Larence-Nemi said that teachers must be prepared
because, according to her, the free education project of the Rivers State
government cannot be compromised.

“We want the best and only the best can produce future
doctors, future lawyers, future engineers, so we teachers must be prepared”,
she emphasised.

Reflecting on the theme of this year’s Teachers Day
celebration, “Take A Stand For Teachers”, the Commissioner reiterated that the
Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi has already taken a stand.

The Commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent
Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Education, Dr. Richard Ofuru, recalled that
the actions the governor has taken since he came on board in the area of
capacity building, building of world-class model primary and secondary schools,
regular payment of teachers’ salaries, recruitment of teachers, have changed
the general belief that teachers’ reward is heaven.

Today, according to the Commissioner, teachers’ reward is on
earth as the government has given teachers’ welfare priority adding that the
government has ensured greater atomosphere for teaching and learning.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion, the Head of St.
John’s Campus, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Associate Prof. V.A.
Asuru, noted that teachers are the most important component of development in
any society, becase as a change agent, they facilitate the teaching and
learning process.

Asuru commended the Rivers State government for its drive
towards excellence in the education sector and enjoined teachers to be
committed to take education in Rivers State to the next higher level.

He expressed optimism that as Rivers State takes the lead,
teachers would also be put in position to be able to revolutionise the
education system.

Earlier in an address, the Chairman of Nigeria Union of
Teachers (NUT), Rivers State Wing, Comrade Moses Adiela, noted that the
emphasis on the theme of this year’s World Teachers’ Day, “Take A Stand For
Teachers” is that the society as a whole must realise the undiluted importance
of the teacher, to be able to say whom the teacher is and make favourable
declaration for him.

Adiela maintained that as NUT is threatening to call off
their teachers from the classroom over certain unpaid allowance, teachers in
Rivers State are not involved because according to him, those allowances have
been implemented.

He appealed to the Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike
Amaechi to use his office as the Chairman of Governors’ forum, to prevail on
other governors in the country who have not implemented those allowances to
implement them so that academic activities in primary and secondary schools
would not be disrupted.

In a paper presented, the guest lecturer, in the Department
of Curriculum Studies and Education Technology, University of Port Harcourt,
Dr. A.U. Nwanekezi, said teachers are facilitators who are trained to guide
students to achieve goals that would make them fit into any society they found
themselves.

The University lecturer noted that human resource
development is the product of a teacher adding that teaching is the mother
profession that gives birth to all other professions.

According to her, if education is the door that leads to
modernization and development, it is the teacher that holds the key that
unlocks that door.

She, therefore, advised the Teachers’ Registration Council
(TRC) to ensure that only trained teachers are employed by private schools
especially at the primary levels which is the foundation of education.

Eunice Choko-Kayode