By Sunday Ani

On Thursday, October 5, staff and students of Trinity International College (TRICO), Ofada in Ogun State rolled out the drums to celebrate this year’s World Teacher’s Day.

As early as 10:00am, the College auditorium had come alive with students and teachers seated in a celebratory mood. The event witnessed singing competition between male and female teachers as well as drama presentation by the students.

To set the ball rolling, the Director of Education of the college, Mrs. Oluwafunmilayo Aderinoye, in her address, described the event as a day the school celebrates and appreciates its teachers as well as a day that offers students the opportunity to celebrate their teachers. It was also a founder’s day celebration for the school.

She congratulated the teachers and urged them to count themselves lucky for parenting other professions. “There is no other profession that is as honourable as teaching. It gave birth to all other professions. Without teaching, no profession exists. Beyond that, Christ himself was a teacher. I don’t know in which way you have been encouraged or discouraged, but I can tell you that you are in an awesome profession,” she said.

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She insisted that teachers identify lives that need concerns; lives that need push up as well as lives that need counseling by just a mere touch of their hands, sometimes. “And God has enabled us to perform tremendously in doing the work,” she said.

According to the educationist, the College decided two years ago that apart from the celebration of the day by the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), it would equally celebrate it within the school.

She said: “Since the world has come to recognize the teachers and there is a world teacher’s day, we started about two years ago to celebrate teachers inside this school. And that is because we have two schools with close to 100 teachers whom we can’t convey to the state capital, where the NUT celebrates it. Besides, parents and alumni associations of the college are ready to celebrate our teachers here. However, where we do the celebration doesn’t really matter; the essential thing is celebrating the teachers.”

She advised teachers to adopt this year’s college theme for teachers, “I am a teacher, I touch the future,” in their day-to-day activities.

“Teachers should understand that they are touching and moulding lives, not just for today but for the future. A teacher who wants to achieve and make a positive impact must have a positive mind; be passionate about what he/she does, must love the job as well as the child that is being touched. Being a teacher is like building a destiny. If you want to see a bright future not just for the students themselves but for Nigeria as a whole, then put in your very best. What we do to our children is an impact on our nation.
“We make engineers, journalists, doctors and other professionals, even teachers. They pass through our hands to become the professionals they want to be and when they turn to those professionals, they seem bigger than us. But I tell you, no child can be bigger than his father or mother; we are still the mother and father of all professions,” she submited.
She lamented that the society may not always appreciate teachers, which is clearly evidenced in their poor remuneration, but urged them not to be discouraged since nobody, in the true sense of it, can pay them as teachers.