The role and responsibility of teachers

In the past as well as today, the role and status of teachers have always been respected and promoted by the people; because teachers have a great responsibility in improving people's knowledge, training talents, contributing significantly to building a sustainable, healthy, civilized and progressive society.

The beauty of teachers. Photo: Chinh Thanh

Our country has a precious tradition of "loving learning and respecting teachers". Since ancient times, our ancestors have talked about the position of teachers: "Without a teacher, you will never succeed" or "If you want to cross the bridge, you must build the Kieu bridge/ If you want your children to be good at reading, you must love their teachers", or "One word from a teacher/ Half a word from a teacher". Teachers are always respected because they are symbols of moral standards, talent and play an important role in shaping moral values, knowledge and personality for generations of students. And when they become successful, people still respect and are grateful for the teaching of their teachers: "Ten years of studying and studying/ When you have a chance to succeed, do not forget the teacher's kindness". The three most important days of the traditional New Year (Lunar New Year) are also dedicated to teachers: "On the first day, we pay respect to our fathers, on the second day, we pay respect to our mothers, on the third day, we pay respect to our teachers".

In the Ho Chi Minh era, the position of teachers has been constantly raised to new heights in terms of morality and knowledge to meet the development needs of the country. During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh paid special attention to the country's educational cause and he emphasized: "The task of education is very important and glorious, without teachers, there is no education... without education, without cadres, there is no talking about economy - culture". In his speech at Hanoi Pedagogical University in October 1964, Uncle advised: "What is more glorious than the profession of training future generations to actively contribute to building socialism and communism? A good teacher - a teacher worthy of being a teacher - is the most glorious person...". Inheriting Ho Chi Minh's thought and the tradition of "respecting teachers and valuing education" of the nation, our Party and State always pay attention to education and training, identifying it as the top national policy, the cause of the Party, the State and the entire people. The Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party has set the goal of our country becoming a developed country with high income by 2045. To achieve that goal, we must innovate, improve the quality of education and training, improve the quality of human resources and talents to meet the requirements of the country's tasks in the new period, and therefore teachers have an increasingly important position, role and great responsibility.

The reason why the society in the past and present always respects and promotes the role and status of teachers and the teaching profession is because teachers have a great responsibility in improving people's knowledge, training talents, and actively contributing to building a healthy, civilized and progressive society. Despite the years and ups and downs of history and social development, the role of teachers and learning are always respected, honored and trusted by the people to entrust their children to the teachers to teach them to become good people.

In the 21st century, humanity has entered the 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), thereby opening a new era - the digital age. If in the past, Vietnam had to miss and fall behind due to war, then now in the Industrial Revolution 4.0, Vietnam cannot miss it again, but must be proactive and active from the beginning to join humanity in this great revolution. Only then can we confidently "bring the country into a new era, an era of national growth following the era of independence, freedom, building socialism and the era of innovation" (General Secretary To Lam). However, whether it is successful or not depends largely on the causeof education and training, in which a great responsibility rests on the shoulders of the teaching staff. This is to see the great role and responsibility of the teaching staff for the development of the country.

More than 200 years ago, teacher Vo Truong Toan, famous for his “extensive knowledge, strategic talent and virtue”, talked about the responsibility and role of a teacher, which is: “A good teacher makes the country prosperous”. The general idea is that a teacher with morality, kindness, love for his students, and intelligence in his profession, creates many generations of students with both talent and virtue, contributing to making the country strong and prosperous. Teacher Vo Truong Toan affirmed that this comes from the fact that only “Good teachers” with all of these qualities can create generations of “talents” for the country, and “talents are the vital energy of the country, when the vital energy is strong, the country will be strong and prosperous; when the vital energy is weak, the country will be weak and declining”. From that, it can be affirmed that in order to build a strong and prosperous country, one of the most important strategies is to take care of the teaching staff - ensuring that they can live peacefully on the noble teaching profession and devote themselves to the noble cause of "cultivating people". This is one of the important solutions in implementing the strategy "Education and Training is the top national policy".

In order for the teaching staff to truly be “Good teachers, prosperous country”, each teacher needs to constantly self-study, improve knowledge, self-train to improve professional ethics to be worthy of the role of a teacher. Currently, a teacher worthy of the role of a teacher needs to possess qualities such as: having knowledge, broad and comprehensive understanding of the professional field; richness and vividness of practice; standards and exemplary teaching methods and style, being an example for students, families and people to learn and follow. Only then can we meet the task of fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training of high-quality human resources and developing science and technology , associated with the requirements of startups, innovation, etc. Especially, in the digital age, teachers must understand technology, update their knowledge and have good pedagogical methods. Without understanding technology, teachers will not be able to carry out digital transformation in education, thereby limiting their teaching methods. Without understanding technology, teachers will not quickly grasp changes and update new knowledge regularly and will fall behind. On the contrary, when teachers have understanding of technology, they will have the conditions to update, expand knowledge, improve and innovate pedagogical methods, understand the psychology of students, so they have appropriate behaviors for each subject, and teach effectively. As UNESCO has concluded several decades ago: although the world context has many changes, many great challenges and cultural characteristics of different countries and ethnicities, the three qualities of "devotion, creativity and responsibility" of teachers are still valuable today.

On Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20, discussing the position, role and responsibility of the teaching staff, we understand more about the difficulties and hardships of the teaching profession, thereby appreciating and being grateful for the great contributions of teachers. Therefore, it is necessary to respect, honor and promote the position of teachers, the decisive factor in the quality of education and training. Respect and honor not only motivate and encourage the teaching staff to confidently undertake the noble and extremely glorious mission, but also for the prosperous development of the country.

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/chinh-tri/202411/vai-tro-va-trong-trach-cua-nha-giao-6d63263/