Take the lead, teachers told
Sultan: Educators can play strong role in ensuring stability
TANJuNG MALIM: Teachers have a strong influence in promoting the spirit of muhibbah (goodwill) among their students to ensure the country’s resilience and stability.
Teachers, said Sultan Nazrin Shah, should foster unity among their multiracial students continuously although the country had achieved independence 60 years ago.
“The concept of educational excellence is upheld by those who are fully talented, determined and industrious,” he said when launching a book on educationist Tan Sri Yahaya Ibrahim at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) here yesterday.
The Sultan said besides working at ensuring that their students achieved greater success than they had, outstanding and dedicated teachers were capable of firing up the spirit of learning.
Teachers who were always spoken well of, he said, were those who could win their students’ hearts.
The Sultan said the philosophy held by the Kirkby College-trained teachers during the pre- and post-independence period and the role they played should be emulated and sustained by the current educators in the country.
“My mother Tuanku Permaisuri Bainun is a Kirkby College graduate. As a teacher, she has an open attitude and accepted and respected her colleagues, friends and acquaintances, neighbours, parents and students from different races and religions.
“She has set a good example for her students to get to know the world better and she helped my siblings and I not to have prejudices and to forge friendships within a wider circle across religious, racial, cultural, political and national boundaries,” he said.
Cikgu Yahaya’s 153-page book was written by UPSI staff A. Halim Ali, Raja Ahmad Shalaby and Ahmad Janatul Firdaus. Born in Bayan Lepas, Penang, on Feb 18, 1929, Yahaya, who was trained in Kirkby College, has been involved in the field of education since 1954.
Commending the efforts of the writers, the Sultan said it should spur UPSI to come out with more publications on local and international personalities in the fields of education and teaching.