School teachers inspire us like no one else.
They are able to easily identify an ingrained potential that we fail to fathom.
School teachers continually guide children under their care to become success stories.
The absence of academic intelligentsia will lead to a chaotic world.
A schoolteacher of such mettle is Donato Labalaba, who believes in never giving up because there is hope.
“When I was a child, I use to admire fathers visiting their sons in primary school.
“I had no father figure as a mentor. Born in 1971 and a dyslexic, my way of bonding to my grandmother was for her to hold my hand as we walked to any destination.
“My mother was always working as a cleaner six days per week on the Blue Lagoon Cruises back in the late ‘70s until the early ‘90s,” he said.
The Tunuloa, Cakaudrove native was educated at St Thomas Primary School in Lautoka in 1979 and for him school work was a struggle from the get-go.
“Going to school was the worst part of my life. Being dyslexic meant that what I had learnt the previous day used to be forgotten the next day.
“Teachers gave me hidings for things I did not know. I hated spelling, composition writings and multiplication tables,” he said.
He had a tough going while growing up.
“I used to study under a streetlight. During heavy rain, the roof of our house used to leak and all of us used to stand with our beddings in our hands, wait for the rain to stop before drying the floor to sleep.
“I repeated form six twice before deciding to attend Fulton College and study theology,” he said.
After graduating from Fulton College during a five-year tenure, Mr Labalaba was offered his first posting to a rural based school on Vanua Levu.
“My first teacher posting was to Cikobia Island, Macuata in 1997 and the second was to Lutukina District School on the boarders of Macuata, Cakaudrove and Bua.
“I have completed Postgraduate Education Leadership, Postgraduate Governance and Public Policy and Postgraduate International Relation and Diplomacy which was self-funded mainly from my superannuation education subsidy and a part of my fortnightly salary.”
Mr Labalaba is currently assisting the head teacher at St Thomas Primary School in Lautoka and teaches Year 6 students.
“As a schoolteacher, my work is to inspire, motivate, inform and persuade minds of our young citizens to make well informed choices.
“The six Ps of a schoolteacher are patriarch, prophet, priest, pastor, parent and pal to prepare, mould and shape characters and be seen as an agent of change to educate and redeem,” he said.
Mr Labalaba had a strong message to the masses, especially the schoolchildren in the country.
“Never give up easily; for those who reach the top, must take each step at a time and once you are at the top, serve with all your heart because our life is one of service and relationship.”
