Celebrating World Teachers’ Day: Empowering Teachers, Building Sustainable Societies
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Since 1994, education stakeholders highlight on 5 October the recommendation concerning the status of teachers signed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1966. Education International (EI) and the United Nations (UN) seize the day to raise awareness on the importance of teachers for social development, challenging and criticising the problems that teachers are exposed to worldwide.
This year’s programme of the official celebration in Paris connects to the recently discussed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in New York. The SDG follow up on the Millennium Development Goals, which expire at the end of 2015. Governments have jointly agreed on objectives for the next years until 2030 and have resolved “to create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities”. The key to reaching these goals lies in education, because it can help to enhance economic development and support s a peaceful and equal society. The fourth agenda item of the SDG recognises the importance of education and aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
On World Teachers’ Day, representatives from EI, UN, UNESCO, ILO and national governments, are going to discuss these goals, aiming to “mobilise a roadmap for teachers towards 2030”. Fred van Leeuwen, EI General Secretary, is opening this years’ event, which puts a special focus on early childhood education, an education sector, which is often overlooked when it comes to better recognition of the teaching profession, but that has still got a decisive role in overcoming inequality in education. EI is also in charge of moderating a discussion panel on “Early Childhood Education as a Profession: Trends, Status and Challenges.”
To raise awareness on World Teacher’s Day, EI is publishing together with the UNESCO, the ILO, UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) a joint message, warning of the “global education crisis in the making .“ Although the importance of teachers for children’s learning is increasingly recognised, the tendency is still to under-evaluate and disempower teachers. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, to achieve universal primary education by 2020 countries would need to recruit a total of 12.5 million primary teachers. Together with an ageing teaching personnel and the low attractiveness of the profession, the challenges are huge. ETUCE calls to its member organisations to support teacher unions worldwide in tackling future and current challenges. Education is a human right and not a privilege of a few; and teachers play a major role in achieving an equal global society. ETUCE encourage its member organisations to seize the opportunity on World Teachers’ Day to make their voice on the empowerment of teachers heard.
With a view to share and further disseminate teacher unions’ actions for World Teachers’ Day, ETUCE warmly invite member organisations to send to the secretariats in digital format their statements, photos, press releases, activity reports and other material produced for the day. To see the poster of the World Teacher’s Day, please click here