Message from the Heads of UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF,
UNDP and Education International on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day,
50th anniversary of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the
Status of Teachers, 5 October 2016
Every year on World Teachers Day we celebrate the
limitless contributions made by teachers around the world. Day after
day, year in and year out, these dedicated women and men guide and
accompany students through the world of learning, helping them discover
and fulfill their potential. In doing so, teachers not only help shape
the individual futures of millions of children; they also help shape a
better world for all.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development makes
this critical connection between education and development. By adopting
Sustainable Development Goal 4, world leaders pledged to “ensure
inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
opportunities for all.” This goal cannot be achieved unless we increase
the supply of qualified teachers and empower them to be agents of
educational change in the lives of the students they teach.
The situation is urgent. To achieve universal
primary education by 2030, we need 24.4 million more teachers. The
number is even greater for secondary education with 44.4 million
secondary school teachers needed.
How can we recruit these new teachers and attract
them to the vital profession of teaching when around the world, so many
teachers are undertrained, underpaid and undervalued?
Many teachers still work with inadequate
contracts and pay. They often live in difficult conditions, and lack
appropriate initial training, continuous professional development, and
consistent support. They are sometimes victims of discrimination and
even violent attacks.
Teaching could be an attractive, first-choice
profession – if teachers were valued commensurate with the immense value
they provide to our children, and if their professional status as
educators reflected the enormous impact their profession has on our
shared future.
That means providing them with continuing
training and development to support them in their critical role of
educating all children, in all contexts – including the poorest, most
remote communities, and in communities in crisis. It means compensating
them properly and giving them the tools they need to do their
indispensable jobs. It means putting in place policies that safeguard
and reinforce the status of teachers – beginning by giving teachers a
place at the table and an active role in decision-making that affects
their work. And it means improving the efficiency and effectiveness of
education systems at every level.
Fifty years ago today, these principles were laid
down in the landmark 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the
Status of Teachers, which resulted in the first international
standard-setting instrument on teachers. Since that day, we have made
tremendous progress in elevating the status of teachers – but far more
work remains to be done.
We dedicate World Teachers’ Day 2016 to
celebrating this milestone by reaffirming our commitment to the
standards and aspirations it represents – and by redoubling our efforts
to achieve them. The teachers of the world – and the children of the
world – deserve nothing less.
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