A photograph, a handwritten thank you and a memory from 1971: Mohamed bin Zayed honours teachers

Abu Dhabi: More than half a century after he dedicated a photograph to one of his teachers, President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan returned to that memory on World Teachers’ Day, sharing the image alongside a tribute to educators across the UAE.

The photograph, dated April 29, 1971, carries a handwritten message from Sheikh Mohamed to his teacher, Ahmed Ibrahim Mandi.

“I dedicate this photograph to Mr Ahmed Ibrahim Mandi as a keepsake, with thanks. Mohamed Zayed.”

Shared 55 years later, the image gave a personal dimension to the President’s World Teachers’ Day message, connecting his appreciation for today’s educators with a teacher who had influenced his own early life.

“On World Teachers’ Day, I express my appreciation and gratitude to teachers across the UAE and commend their role in shaping future generations,” Sheikh Mohamed wrote.

He called on people to use the occasion to recognise their own teachers and thank them for the enduring influence they have had on their lives.

Ahmed Ibrahim Mandi Al Tamimi was among the early educators who contributed to the development of education in Abu Dhabi around the period of the UAE’s formation. Sheikh Mohamed was among his pupils at Al Kindi School in the early 1970s. 

Their relationship endured long after the classroom.

In 2017, Sheikh Mohamed, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, visited Mandi at his home in Khalifa City, where the two recalled his school years and the contribution made by the UAE’s early generation of teachers. 

During that visit, Sheikh Mohamed paid tribute to educators who had devoted their time, knowledge and experience to raising generations of students, describing teachers as role models whose influence remained long after their lessons ended.