Educators in UAE share inspirational stories of struggles, triumphs on International Teachers’ Day

Dubai: Teachers should go beyond academics to also teach students life skills and well-being practices, educators in the UAE said on World Teachers’ Day on Monday, also known as International Teachers’ Day.

It has been an especially challenging year for teachers as they had to adapt to distance teaching, with many of them helping their own children with online classes at the same time, because of the disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. There are over 70,000 teachers in the UAE’s public and private schools, many of whom had no prior experience in teaching online, like their counterparts globally.

Teachers told Gulf News they have a moral responsibility to go beyond the syllabus, helping students cope with online or blended learning, as well as inspiring them to reach their full potential academically and socially in these unprecedented times. As the world marks this Teachers’ Day with virtual celebrations, tributes have been coming in from students and school leaders.

Andreas Swoboda, principal of Uptown International School, Dubai, said teachers deserve the “utmost respect” in society, especially these days as the world grapples with the COVID-19 crisis. “Teachers are the engine of education. They have risen to the challenge of multitasking teaching, delivering simultaneously face-to-face and distance learning with inspiration and innovation. They demonstrate ultimate care and commitment to their students and their learning journeys; the progress and welfare of their children are always paramount in their planning. Together with our health workers, they deserve society’s utmost respect and admiration for their front-line role during these unprecedented and challenging times,” he added.

On the occasion, schoolteachers in the UAE shared aspects from their lives, narrating the challenges and joys they have experienced as educators.

And that’s exactly what happened. In 2012, she graduated from the University of Greenwich with a bachelor of arts honours degree in primary education with ‘Qualified Teacher Status’; the first in her family to attend university. She then began teaching in an inner-city school in London where she thrived in building close relationships while inspiring students through her teaching. Elimlahi has been with her Abu Dhabi school for six years now.

As a student, her interaction with caring teachers had inspired her to become a teacher, which she said is a profession where every student’s strengths, weakness and interests should be paid close attention to. “Teaching is not about having a syllabus and teaching that to however many faces you have in front of you. We’re called teachers but there’s so much more than ‘teaching’ that we do … Also I’ve been fortunate enough to be offered lots of opportunity by my school and lots of recognition as well,” Elimlahi said.

McNeill, who has taught pretty much every subject in her 12-year career, has a certain philosophy to teaching — she believes teachers should not stop at academics, but “raise good little humans, responsible citizens and agents of change”.

At school, McNeill also teaches meditation techniques to give children “an idea of appropriate, essential well-being as well, and they absolutely love it. Especially now, with COVID-19, children are going through a lot of emotion, for example not being able to have the same interaction with their peers as before”. As a child, McNeill never wanted to be anything but a teacher. “I used to teach my younger brother how to read and write, I would have these little classes with him. From the very beginning, I felt like I was a born teacher.”

De Wit had it rough as a three-year-old boy who had to have one kidney removed as a result of cancer. He sometimes shares his inspirational story with his students to show them “anything is possible”. But “the most important thing” for him in the classroom is to remove the fear of making mistakes.

He uses humour in his lessons and takes interest in what his students like. “If you show interest in their life, they respect you so much more.” De Wit starts the new academic year with “an honest message” to his maths students. “Look, I get it, some of you may not like maths, some of you may be better at arts. But I’m going to make sure you enjoy it,” he said. De Wit, whose mother is also a teacher, said from a young age “teaching was the obvious choice for me … There is not a single day in teaching that’s the same, you have to be open for anything and that’s the great thing about it”.

When schools in the UAE closed in March because of the pandemic, it was up to Ali to oversee that the KG section of her school moved online in record time. “I didn’t want there to be a gap in children’s learning. We had to take very quick steps, even though this was uncharted territory,” she said.

It wasn’t just creativity that shone through; this was a time to be fully transparent, she added. “We had never thought these times would come, none of us were trained for something like this. Transparency helped all of us. We told parents, ‘this is the situation’. Many parents were not used to the technology of distance learning, they had to learn about the platforms, just like many teachers.”  The hard work paid off — the children’s learning was not disrupted, she added. In fact, they had both teachers and parents monitoring their progress closely during the distance learning period, Ali said. “Of course, nothing can replace a school, but I believe we did a good job with online classes.”

Ali started teaching, professionally, two decades ago in Mumbai, India. But she has been ‘a teacher’ ever since she can remember, ever since she used to help other children learn while she was herself a child.