Tributes to my teachers

World Teachers Day-UNESCO: Fiji Sun TV

Benefiting from teaching career 

I am delighted and very proud to be part of this significant world. I began my professional life as an elementary school teacher. Over the years I moved from teaching to law enforcement career but what I found was that my love for teaching always remained an integral part of my passion and life. I could not give up the passion. As a result, perhaps prompted by my subconscious mind, I got appointed as Police College instruction at the Royal Fiji Police College where I realized my dream of educating adult career people in law and management studies that for ever became my permanent forte. This one single trait as a teacher/instructor has made me an education provider today where I immensely enjoy offering service to humanity and providing human development with no expectation for rewards.

(Above law enforcement and instructor at the Royal Fiji Police College).

It is a  most noble career and as I look back I frequently thank God for giving such excellent teachers who have been responsible in shaping my life. It motivates me to do the same to continue to be a life time teacher.

( in the above picture, I am 4th standing in the back row. Bearded man in the front row is late Master Mohammed Hussain who introduced me to the True Islam – Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) 

I had to cut short my law enforcement career due to discrimination and take to a management training position in the private industry which is where I learned a lot about “human development” and founded FIJI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT which gave me a wider recognition leading to professional accreditation  with Australian as well As well the New Zealand Management institutes.  My services as  FIM director training and development earned me the Fellowship of FIM.  A military coup in the early 1980s landed me in USA and FIM dwindled  I restructured and converted FIM into AIM the American Institute of Management to “transform traditional managers into professional managers.”

It is through continuing education in management training programs, managers are accredited as Associates, Members and Fellows of the institute gaining prestige and recognition of their professional standing.

 In my effort to providing continued education in management studies I recently provided free training to a group of native Fijian business owners in Sacramento, California who came in search of advance Business Leadership training.  

Native Fijians at AIM Leadership Training in Sacramento 

My tribute to my high school English Teacher Dr M A Dard

Dr. M A Dard was directed by Second Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community , Hazrat Mirza Mahmoud Ahmad to take up teaching position in Fiji and assist the first missionary Abdul Wahid (Fazil ) in the establishment of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. I was then a student at the Muslim High School where Dr. Dard taught us English. He grounded us very in the English grammar and infused a confidence to become good writers. Some twenty years later we reconnected through internet and I was humbled and honored Dr. Dard invited his own student to write an introduction to his autobiography .

I am ever so grateful to Dr. Dard for being a very wonderful teacher and a great human being who equipped me the essential of English language.

Frequently Asked and Questions

World Teachers’ Day: why 5 October?

UNESCO proclaimed 5 October to be World Teachers’ Day in 1994, celebrating the great step made for teachers on 5 October 1966, when a special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, in cooperation with the ILO.

This recommendation sets forth the rights and responsibilities of teachers as well as international standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, teaching and learning conditions. Various guidelines are included regarding teachers’ participation in educational decisions through consultation and negotiation with policy-makers. Since its adoption, the Recommendation has been considered an important set of guidelines to promote teachers’ status in the interest of quality education.

5 October also celebrates the adoption by the UNESCO General Conference in 1997 of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel.

Why a day for teachers?

World Teachers’ Day held annually on 5 October, is a UNESCO initiative, a day devoted to appreciating, assessing, and improving the educators of the world. The real point is to provide a time to look at and address issues pertaining to teachers. Strangely one of the most central, vital professionals to society does not receive the respect it deserves in some parts of the world.

WTD is a natural extension of UNESCO’s all year round work of promoting teachers, ensuring that this profession, so vital to the healthy functioning of society, is itself “healthy”.  Teachers are a normative indicator of social health.

Why an international day, doesn’t each country have very specific issues?

Teachers are producing global citizens, so they are global teachers, who need to situate their advances on a global level. WTD is an opportunity to rethink national issues facing teachers from an international perspective, to benchmark progress made by national teachers in a global context. UNESCO provides the best global context to address and exchange ideas across borders.

What can I do?

Everyone can help by celebrating the profession, by generating awareness about teacher issues, by ensuring that teacher respect is part of the natural order of things. Take the opportunity of the day to discuss, compare, learn, argue, share and improve.

Partners all over the world celebrate and organize events for WTD, you can contact UNESCO (wtd(at)unesco.org) to find out who may be organizing an event near you or organize your own local event.