October 5 is globally celebrated as World Teachers’ Day to thank all teachers for all that they do for their students. A quotation rightly goes: “A nation without teachers is a body without soul or a tree without water.”

Teachers are the builders of nations, they are the ones who give us engineers, doctors, pilots and other professionals.

In return, it is the duty of every one of us to give respect to teachers who work so hard to make us good person by imparting education to us along with building our personalities and shaping our future.

Sometimes we may feel that some teachers are strict with us. But in reality, they are tough on us for our own good, to help us become better educated and not suffer due to unpleasant times in future. There is no one to be respected more than a teacher who guides you, supports you and even in times of hardship becomes your father or mother. A teacher tries to understand the problems of the lazy or weak students and bring them to the right path to achieve their goals.

Once I asked a teacher, “Why are you harsh with students by punishing them?”

He then smilingly raised a question to me, “Are we strict with students who are good at studies?”

I replied, “Nope, never sir!”

Then he added, “Our main purpose is to make them realise that there is a life after school, where the world ignores uneducated people and there only doctors, engineers, pilots, commissioners, scientists, judges and other educated people are respected. If children do well in school, no one can stop them to become one of the leaders of society. And for this we need to keep an eye on all students and urge them to do their best for their own betterment.”

It is seen that teachers don’t mind going out of their way to help students as it makes them happy to see their students progress. Teachers have the power to bring civilisation to backward societies and create an environment of progress.

There is a quarter near my home and a teacher lives in my neighbourhood. He gives tuitions to poor students who cannot afford the fee of private tuitions in our city. He really deserves appreciations for the good work he does for poor students. Besides him, there are thousands of teachers all over the Pakistan whose vision is to make Pakistan an educated nation, to turn it into a peaceful and respected country.

I thank all of my teachers for supporting me in each step of my educational life. I thank those teachers who always motivated me and urged me to motivate my juniors in return. I hope that the good deeds of teachers will be appreciated and they continue to give students bright futures and make them successful members of society.

Thank you teachers, and a very happy Teachers’ Day!

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 5th, 2019