For teachers in Rwanda and millions of others across the globe, this year’s celebration of World Teachers Day will be unique for a number of reasons. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers will not be able to gather in their numbers in respective districts to celebrate one another and make merry.

This time around, the focus of teachers will be on the new challenges of the circumstance, which require them to purposefully play a leadership role in steering the younger generation to a future that has been forced upon us by the Coronavirus. 

At the very least, one can surmise that this year’s theme "Teachers:  leading in crisis, reimagining the future”, is a clarion call and affirmative statement at the same time.  Teachers will have to and be allowed to take up the frontline position in leading the country in discovering and charting new paths for quality teaching and learning.

As schools prepare to resume, hopefully in the coming weeks, teachers have a significant task ahead. They must be psychologically prepared for the leading role they will play in reducing the risks of Covid-19 exposure for themselves, students, and all actors in the school setting. Also, they have to discover new teaching patterns to ensure that their pedagogy is in sync with the expectations and demands of the unfolding future.

For example, strategies such as "group work” may have to be shelved during this period for obvious health reasons; nevertheless, teachers must not lose the determination to equip students with core 21st-century skills such as collaboration and communication.

In other words, our teachers must take care not to be paralysed by the challenges that Covid-19 presents to their accustomed practice of teaching. Instead, they must collectively challenge themselves to discover the opportunities for impactful pedagogical transformation that are hidden within the perceived challenges.

Our teachers and education stakeholders must demonstrate the resilience and strength for which Rwanda as a country is known. This was recently echoed in the reflections of one Mr Vedaste Dusabimana, a Teacher Training Program (TTP) trainee of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). He summarised his key takeaway from the training carried out by the program (TTP) during this pandemic break, which included online interactions with teachers from Ghana and South Africa in the following statement: "Being in difficult time doesn’t mean to stop all activities but an opportunity for people to think beyond the difficulties in order to find solutions and other ways of doing things”.

In essence, his statement echoes a new demand on those charged with teacher training: we must set aside our traditional quality assurance frameworks and work WITH the teachers to exploit new teaching and learning opportunities that come hidden in the challenges associated with the Covid-19 "new normal”.

At the very least, we must turn our schools and classrooms into enactive reflection spaces, and spur our teachers on the innovative path to discover the hidden gems in some of the seemingly unwelcome practices that have been forced upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic.

For example, the fact that many schools may have to consider using a hybrid model of learning provides a considerable opportunity to exploit different forms of technology, while providing a unique avenue to nurture a generation of children with lifelong skills such as self-regulated learning. Furthermore, the hybrid model also provides a new opening for collaboration between teachers and parents. In an attempt to stimulate such collaboration, teachers may be compelled to transition to less abstract teaching and work at making their sessions more connected to real-life examples that would be more relevant to both parents and students.

Another opportunity to turn the Covid-19 education-related "lemons” into lemonade is the expected demand for all teachers to play a closer role in providing psychosocial support for students. Building such a culture will result in a more positive emotional relationship between the students and teachers, given the fact that emotions play a significant role in supporting or hindering learning.

We must bear in mind that the mining of the above treasures will play out differently in various learning contexts and be impacted by the extent to which we support, inspire and empower to lead during this crisis. As is amplified in this year’s theme, we must therefore all step back and create nurturing school environments that will allow the teachers to lead us reflectively and spearhead the new terrains of teaching and learning in our schools.

Happy World Teachers Day 2020!

Dr Herine Otieno-Menya is the Director, AIMS Teacher Training Programme.