Happy Teachers' Day - Be the inspiration the students need.

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM: WHEN TEACHERS PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR LIFE

What if the most important lessons a teacher gives are the ones that never appear on an examination paper?

For Dr Venisha Gooriah Jugnarain and her colleague Mr Wadesh Daladoo, education has never been confined to textbooks, classrooms and examination results. Their work with young people through the Duke of Edinburgh's Award programme reflects a broader belief: education should prepare students not only to succeed academically, but to navigate life with confidence, resilience and purpose.

“Are we ready not simply to teach lessons, but to influence lives?” asks Dr Jugnarain, a question that has increasingly shaped her approach to education.

For the two educators, the answer has been found partly outside the traditional classroom.

Through adventure journeys, expeditions and residential projects under the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, students are placed in situations that challenge them physically, emotionally and socially. They must navigate unfamiliar environments, work as teams, manage fatigue, solve problems, make decisions and take responsibility for themselves and others.

These experiences offer lessons that cannot always be measured through conventional assessment.

They develop survival skills. Young people learn how to remain calm when plans change, adapt when circumstances become difficult, communicate under pressure and persevere when exhaustion makes giving up seem easier.

For Dr Jugnarain, these experiences can have consequences far beyond the activity itself.

“A young person who learns to navigate an unfamiliar landscape may later find the courage to navigate an unfamiliar career,” she reflects.

The relationship between teacher and student is also transformed. Away from the classroom, teachers see different dimensions of their students, while students encounter their teachers in situations where cooperation, trust and mutual respect become essential.

It is this human connection that Dr Jugnarain believes lies at the heart of meaningful education.

Students, she argues, should never become simply examination numbers. They need adults who recognise their struggles, identify abilities they may not yet see in themselves and encourage them to believe that they are capable of more.

“You can do this,” is sometimes one of the most powerful things a teacher can tell a young person—provided those words are accompanied by genuine belief.

The impact of such relationships can sometimes be seen years later.

Some of Dr Jugnarain's former students have gone on to establish We Are Youth, a nonprofit organisation supporting underprivileged children and families through food assistance and free extra classes. Their work provides another example of how education can continue to influence communities long after students have left school.

For Dr Jugnarain, there is something particularly powerful about this evolution.

“The lesson continues, even when the teacher is no longer in the room.”

It is a simple idea with profound implications. A teacher may influence one student, who may eventually influence dozens, hundreds or even an entire community.

That philosophy has also influenced Dr Jugnarain's wider educational work. Through her involvement in bringing Heyball into government-funded secondary schools in Mauritius, she has explored another way of using sport as an educational tool.

A pool table, she argues, can become a classroom of its own.

Concentration, decision-making, emotional control, respect, resilience and perseverance are all developed through the game. A missed shot becomes an opportunity to understand failure. Repetition becomes practice. Practice becomes mastery.

The philosophy is remarkably similar to that of the Duke of Edinburgh experience.

“The adventure is not simply the journey through a landscape; the real journey is the young person discovering who they are when the journey becomes difficult,” says Dr Jugnarain.

For both educators, this is where the true meaning of education begins to emerge.

Academic achievement remains important. Knowledge matters, and qualifications can open doors. But education, they believe, cannot stop there.

Schools are preparing future professionals, entrepreneurs, parents, leaders, innovators, caregivers and citizens. The qualities required for those roles cannot always be acquired by memorising information for an examination.

They are developed through experience.

Through failure.

Through responsibility.

Through relationships.

Through moments when young people discover that they are capable of more than they thought.

For Dr Jugnarain and Mr Daladoo, the Duke of Edinburgh programme has therefore become much more than an extracurricular activity. It has provided a space where students can discover themselves, test their limits and build skills that may accompany them throughout adulthood.

And perhaps that is the real purpose of education: not simply to tell young people what they need to know, but to help them discover who they can become.

Dr Jugnarain believes teachers should never underestimate the reach of their influence.

A teacher may never see the career shaped by an encouraging word, the family built by a former student, or the community served by someone who once sat in their classroom.

“A teacher's impact can cross generations,” she says.

That impact is often invisible at first. It may take years before the seeds planted in a classroom, on an expedition or around a pool table begin to grow.

But when former students become professionals, leaders, mentors, volunteers or simply compassionate human beings who make somebody else's life better, the teacher's work continues.

This is the quiet privilege of education.

For Dr Jugnarain and Mr Daladoo, teaching is therefore not merely about preparing young people for the next examination. It is about preparing them for the next chapter of their lives.

Their story offers a reminder to educators everywhere that some of the most important lessons happen when the timetable ends, the classroom door opens and young people step into the real world.

Behind every examination result is a human being.

And behind every human being is a story still waiting to be written.

As Dr Jugnarain puts it: “May we teach not only for examinations, but for life. May we build relationships beyond the classroom. May we give our students knowledge, but also courage.”

And perhaps the greatest measure of a teacher's success is not what students remember from a lesson, but what they go on to do with what they have learned.

Happy Teachers' Day to every teacher, educator and mentor around the world.