“There is no profession, be it doctors, engineers, electricians, cooks… that does not pass through the hands of a teacher. I, as Delegate of the Government, but above all as a colleague, would like to thank you for the work you have done during all these years.”
The head of the Government Delegation, Sabrina Moh, has highlighted the role of the 34 teaching professionals and non-teaching staff who have been honored today on the occasion of their retirement, for their outstanding contribution in the different educational centers of the city to educational improvement and a better society.
The emotional act that the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFPyD) gave this afternoon on the occasion of his retirement in the Golden Hall of the Assembly Palace, was attended by a large representation of the MEFPyD of Melilla, headed by its Provincial Director, Juan Ángel Berbel, as well as the Councilor for Education of the City, Miguel Ángel Fernández.
The highest representative of the Government of Spain in our city has recognized that, for her, it has been an enormous pride to be able to recognize these professionals for a lifetime dedicated to teaching.
Moh has reiterated the importance of this profession that, in addition to vocational, “is continuously alive, because every day we face different challenges that make us learn to continue being transmitters of knowledge.”
“You have had the enormous responsibility of, generation after generation, inculcating that knowledge, each in its subject, and, above all, inculcating a series of fundamental values so that, in adult life, we can face the great challenges of our society,” he added.
“Education is a transforming tool of society and, therefore, in addition to the knowledge, in addition to the publication of the contents, the methodology, the evaluation we face, all the bureaucracy we have to go through on a day-to-day basis and especially every end of the quarter, the human value of this profession is also very important,” he said.
In her speech, the Delegate highlighted the capacity of teachers to adapt and referred to the COVID-19 pandemic, “which made us all shut up at home and there you were teachers, teleworking, reinventing yourselves, so that our students did not miss a single day of learning”. “I want to remember those complex moments that nobody expects, but to which teachers are able to respond in just 24 hours,” he said.
Deserved rest
For his part, the Provincial Director, in his speech, highlighted the intensity and vocation of the teachers who today have been honored for a whole professional life educating hundreds of people, “who today are, in large part, what you and you have made of them: people educated in knowledge and skills, but also in values of justice, solidarity, tolerance and respect for their fellow men.”
Berbel has highlighted the “immense debt of gratitude” that society has incurred with the honorees whom she has thanked for having “emptied in so many years of teaching to make your students better people.”
“Much could be said of your teachings and everything would be little, but I want to stress that your professional career has been permeated by continuous learning”, he said and referred to the implementation of new technologies and new pedagogical methods, “performing a constant exercise between tradition and innovation and recycling your knowledge and ways of teaching”.
The head of the Provincial Directorate of the MEFPyD has stressed “the work without rest of all these years, so many generations of students are grateful to you because you have contributed to their training and education”.
“I trust that the newly acquired retirement, that well-deserved rest after so many years in the classrooms, will become a period of peace, of greater freedom to dedicate to people or aspects that daily work prevented us from doing with the desired intensity,” he said.
Not only that, Berbel has joked that, when asked how they are, they respond with “I find myself jubilant, because not in vain the word retirement also has to do with the idea of joy, of joy, of joy.”
He has stressed that the honorees must be aware of the duty fulfilled and enjoy the present, so he has encouraged them to live it “with intensity and enjoy this long stage that opens before you.”
A stage of activity, he added, “because a teacher always remains so, because a teacher never retires, because a teacher perpetuates himself in his students,” he said.
The event, in which the Delegate, the Provincial Director and the Councillor gave a plaque of recognition to teaching professionals and non-teaching staff on the occasion of their retirement, was enlivened by the camerata of José Manuel Boubou.