Friday 26 October celebrates World Teachers’ Day in Australia. Interestingly it is celebrated on 5 October in the northern hemisphere, but as the dates always fall into school stand down period, we celebrate it on the last Friday of October each year. The day was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1994 to recognise the role of teachers in society.
Teachers at Merici College make a positive difference in the lives of young women every day. They create opportunities for their students, empowering minds of young women and proudly teaching our nation’s future leaders, innovators and influencers. World Teachers’ Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and thank teachers for the important role they play inside the classroom creating engaging lessons, out on excursions and camps, leading co-curricular sporting and cultural teams after school and on the weekends.
This day also provided the opportunity to thank all staff at Merici, including those in administration, finance, maintenance, catering, classroom assistants and IT. Without their help each day our school could not function. Their role is integral – we are truly interdependent and their expertise and dedication is part of our grand achievements.
The Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn recently celebrated and awarded teachers across the ACT and NSW in the Recognition Awards. These awards can be seen here, a special congratulations to Dr Kathryn White and Ms Maria Tolfree (Merici College Head of Mission of Community 2013-2016) on their well-deserved awards! https://cg.catholic.edu.au/lat-news/2018-recognition-awards-open-for-nominations/
We all know that education in power. It is the key to improving quality of life for self and others and is focused on securing a successful future. The United Nations, 4th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. 100 million young people, around the world, lack basic literacy skills, and most of them are female. To reduce these figures, SDG 4 aims for all children to have access to primary and secondary education by 2030, and for females to have equal access to early childhood development programs and affordable tertiary education.
See: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ for more details.
Whilst progress has been made on achieving goals of gender equality in primary education, many countries continue to struggle in implementing it at all levels of education. This goal aims to facilitate literacy and numeracy among youth, and equal opportunities for all people, regardless of gender or disability.
Which is surely why we must continue to reach out to empower young women, especially Merici graduates to stay true to their passionate love of learning and make a difference in the global community and take up the challenge of the College vision to “Love life, have hope, be faithful and build futures more wondrous than you dare to dream.”
Loretta Wholley
Principal
