A teacher is a magnificent and glorious being that has been given by Allah to the whole universe. Whatever name has been given to the teacher, they carry the same vision and mission, regardless of their ethnic background, culture, and colour.

In Islam, the teacher is the most respected being especially, the first verses said to have been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad contain the command “Read!” (Qur’an 96:1) and also declare that God teaches humanity “by the pen” (96:4).

Studying and promulgating knowledge, especially religious knowledge, is portrayed as a community responsibility that is an important part of mobilising for the cause of God (9:122).

A part of that, a teacher in the new millennium era or 21st century has to serve the challenge to their teaching and learning advancement. Therefore, with the advancement of technology a teacher is required to be prepared not only with the high-tech knowledge but most importantly physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically.

This is to ensure the individual teacher knows how to teach, how to deliver, how to respond, how to sooth, how to motivate, how to solve, and how to manage. The challenges of this noble profession should not be contaminated with undesirable characters and attitudes of immature behaviour.  

A teacher indeed carries an enormous responsibility in his or her classroom, since the teacher is responsible for any social behaviour created or carried throughout the teaching and learning processes. How? Everything the teacher says has an impact emotionally and psychologically towards the students.

If the teacher laughs, the student also laugh. If the teacher feels joy or anger, it will spread among the students because the attitude of the teacher is contagious.

As a result, these attitudes could have a long term positive or negative influence on student development namely, self-esteem, and self-concept. This later could have impact on the academic achievement, social relationship and problematic behaviours.

Moreover, creating conducive learning environment is a must for all teachers at all schools. Positive learning environment is seen as the most powerful element to combat any undesirable behaviours or habits carried by individual students, which might influence the rest of the school.

A warm, reflective, and supportive learning environment should be experienced by all students regardless of whether they are ‘A’ list students or otherwise. The positive and conducive learning atmosphere can be the moderator in student development and determine whether they move towards excellence or mediocrity.

In a nutshell, we believe that the school community should recognise the impact of both positive and conducive leaning environments. These two do not stand alone, indeed, social behaviour in the classroom and learning environment at the school level are always interwoven in facilitating the learning processes of our young generations.

With that, we wish all teachers a happy teachers day

The writer is chairperson of youth committee of Ikram Malaysia, Gombak district.