UNESCO declared 5 October World Teachers’ Day. Since 1994, World Teachers' Day (WTD) has been annually held on the 5th of October. This was the first step in celebrating the momentous step made for teachers on 5 October 1966. Here a special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, in cooperation with the ILO. 5 October is also about celebrating the adoption by the UNESCO General Conference in 1997 of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel. Since its adoption, it has been a set of guidelines that are important to promote teachers’ status in the interest of quality education.
Teachers can be seen as a normative
indicator of social health. Teachers are not only crucial to the right to education,
but they are also key to achieving the targets set out in SDG4.
This day is internationally recognized and
specifically commemorates teacher organizations globally. This day is about
looking at and addressing the numerous issues concerning teachers. Its critical
aim is to mobilize support for teachers as well ensuring that the needs of
future generations will continue to be met by teachers. A greater spotlight is
placed on raising awareness, understanding, and appreciating the contributions
that teachers so selflessly make toward education and development. It is about
recognising the role of teachers in society. In essence, it is about showing
gratitude and appreciation for teachers and saying thanks for all that they so
generously do and for the difference and contributions they make in their
classrooms and communities.
WTD is an extension of UNESCO's annual
work of promoting teachers which is vital to the healthy functioning of society.
More than 100 countries observe WTD. Education International (the global union
federation that represents education professionals worldwide) annually launches
a public awareness campaign to specifically highlight the contributions of the
teaching profession. Education International as well as its 401 member
organizations have contributed to the widely dissemination of the event and its
recognition.
World
Teachers’ Day 2016
World Teachers’ Day 2016 marks the 50th
anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning
the Status of Teachers. Moreover, it is the first WTD to be celebrated within
the new Global Education 2030 Agenda that was adopted by the world community in
2015. This year’s theme, “Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status”, symbolises
the central principles of the fifty-year-old Recommendation while placing a
spotlight on the need to support teachers as reflected in the agenda’s
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A particular education goal, SDG4,
pledges to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
The Education 2030 Framework for Action (the
roadmap for the new agenda) highlights the fact that teachers are vital for
equitable and quality education and must be “adequately trained, recruited and
remunerated, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient, and
effectively governed systems”. However, in order to achieve this goal, it is
necessary not only to substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers
but to motivate them by valuing their work. By 2030, 3.2 million more teachers
will be required to achieve universal primary education and 5.1 million more in
order to achieve universal lower secondary education (UNESCO website).
Each and every one can help by celebrating the
profession by creating awareness about teacher issues and by celebrating the
profession. All over the world there are events that people can participate in.
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