You are here

Critical role

Dec 15,2016 - Last updated at Dec 15,2016

Her Majesty Queen Rania on Tuesday honoured the winners of the 2016 Queen Rania Award for Excellence in Education at a special ceremony, presenting prizes and certificates to the deserving teachers and school counsellors, urging them to lead the change in the field.

Calling on all education professionals to exert collective effort to strengthen the country’s learning landscape, Her Majesty highlighted the critical role teachers play in the development of education and in shaping the future of the country.

“Development requires substituting methods of the past with those compatible with the needs of the future,” said the Queen, making clear the need to revamp education and, more importantly, the need for teachers and all those involved in the education process in the country to be prepared to face the rapidly changing world.

Calling on teachers to lead an “educational renaissance”, the Queen stressed that progress in education involves training teachers before and during their employment.

Training, then, is crucial for teachers, whose “light” has the power to break through many challenges, said Queen Rania, stressing that “those with us today have been able to devise solutions out of sheer need and despite great challenges. They have proved that there is still room in those packed classrooms for innovative solutions and creative ideas”. 

Teachers, added the Queen, are the “heroes of their country”.

Of course, there is a limit to what even the most celebrated teachers can do on their own to meet challenges, present or future, without the support of the country as a whole.

Teachers can become a stimulus for change, but cannot take the Kingdom to where it should be going and prepare it for the future all on their own, without the support of all stakeholders in the field and, more importantly, of the entire community, which has to be involved every step of the way in the efforts to modernise the educational process and, by extension, the country.

But it is teachers who shape the students’ way of thinking, and teach them how to interpret events rationally and sift through information with a critical mind. For that, they should apply modern teaching techniques and be, themselves, open minded and open to novelty.

Still, it is the duty of all in the country to adapt to developments, to accept and absorb knowledge and to realise that investment in education comes back immensely multiplied to benefit all.

up
29 users have voted, including you.


Newsletter

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.

PDF