UNESCO is celebrating World Teachers’ Day (WTD) on October 5 by highlighting the importance of empowering teachers to achieve inclusive and sustainable global development.
This year World Teachers’ Day highlights the need to empower all teachers through the provision of decent, safe, and healthy working conditions, trust, professional autonomy, and academic freedom.
Worldwide there is a growing shortage of quality teachers and inadequate professional training. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates that to achieve universal primary education by 2020 countries will need to recruit a total of 10.9 million primary teachers.
All these factors result in equity gaps in access and learning which mostly affect the poorest regions and schools and the earliest grades. This is particularly damaging, as there is clear evidence that the earliest years of a child’s development are the most critical.
The Day is celebrated at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris with an opening ceremony and address by Qian Tang, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, followed by a panel discussion and roundtables on Education 2030 and the importance of Early Childhood Education (ECE).
Teachers willing to become advocates for education and help lobby for progress towards the new sustainable development agenda can sign up for a teacher advocacy campaign. Teachers signing up will receive advocacy toolkits, and country specific information to help them lobby for change in their country.
World Teachers’ Day has been held annually on October 5 since 1994 and is observed by over 100 countries across the globe.
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