Each 5 October is celebrated as United Nations (UN) International World Teachers’ Day.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes many books about different aspects of teaching.

The UN website explains:

World Teachers’ Day is held annually on 5 October to celebrate all teachers around the globe. It commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. The Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel was adopted in 1997 to complement the 1966 Recommendation by covering teaching personnel in higher education. World Teachers’ Day has been celebrated since 1994.

It is a day to celebrate how teachers are transforming education but also to reflect on the support they need to fully deploy their talent and vocation, and to rethink the way ahead for the profession globally. 

World Teachers’ Day is co-convened in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF and Education International (EI).

Teachers play a pivotal role in shaping the future by nurturing students and driving educational progress. However, to fully harness their potential, it’s crucial that their voices are heard and valued in the decision-making processes that affect their profession. This year’s World Teachers’ Day highlights the need to address the systemic challenges teachers face and to establish a more inclusive dialogue about their role in education. The 2024 celebrations will focus on “Valuing teacher voices: towards a new social contract for education”, underscoring the urgency of calling for and attending to teachers’ voices to address their challenges but, most importantly, to acknowledge and benefit from the expert knowledge and input that they bring to education.

The global event organized at UNESCO Headquarters will emphasize the importance of integrating teachers’ perspectives into educational policies and fostering a supportive environment for their professional development. This theme responds to the significant challenges highlighted by the UN Secretary General’s High-level panel on the Teaching Profession, and our recent Global Report on Teachers, including key new data on the growing teacher shortage and declining working conditions.

The day will feature an opening ceremony with high-level messages from UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF, and Education International. It will also include a keynote address on the necessity of a new social contract in education and a segment showcasing teachers’ voices from the room and around the world, sharing their insights on improving policies and practices. Additionally, the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development will be awarded, celebrating outstanding contributions to teacher development.

A concept note posted on the UN website adds:

On 4 October, UNESCO will celebrate World Teachers’ Day to commemorate the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers and the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the status of higher education teaching personnel.

These instruments set forth the rights and responsibilities of teachers, as well as international standards for the most important professional, social, ethical, and material concerns of teachers.  This year, the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession published a set of Recommendations that seek to strengthen the role of teachers in the transformation of education and to advance SDG 4.

The recommendations highlight the need to review and enhance these normative instruments, and to transform teaching, through social dialogue, for a new social contract for education.

This year’s celebration thus highlights the need to value the knowledge, voice, and participation of teachers in decision-making processes in education.

World Teachers’ Day is organized by UNESCO in collaboration with ILO, UNICEF and Education International.

It will feature an opening ceremony in the presence of high-ranking officials from the convening partners, a panel where teachers will have their say regarding their avenues for participation and the awarding ceremony of the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development.

Across the globe, in various high- and low-income countries alike, the value conferred on the teaching profession is commonly perceived to be low and even in decline. UNESCO and the International Teacher Task Force’s recently published Global Report on Teachers (2024) rang the alarm on a global shortage of teachers and massive growth in teacher attrition rates.

These findings are somewhat unsurprising given the breath and multidimensionality of the challenges facing the profession. Among other factors, poor working conditions, uncompetitive remuneration, and heavy workloads deter teachers from entering or staying in the profession. Beyond the material conditions of teaching, there are also symbolic factors adding to the plight of teachers such as a lack of social recognition, low professional autonomy; Worth and Van den Brande, and little influence in decision-making.

Ignoring the voice of teachers has negative effects on both teacher status and motivation, and on the effectiveness of teacher programmes and overall education policy. 

Recent crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, that disrupted education and caused schools to close confirmed that, if given the space and autonomy necessary, teachers can actually make educational decisions and even develop innovations that ensure learning and student wellbeing.

Teachers carry out research, adapt pedagogies, prioritize curricular content, assess progress and contextualize, personalize education in the classroom, and engage in decision-making in their classrooms.

Yet, despite the central role of teachers and the potential of their participation in the improvement of education, few countries engage in genuine teacher consultations and social dialogue processes with social partners in significant ways.  The ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966) states that there should be close cooperation between governments, teacher organizations, cultural, learning and research institutions to define education policy and its precise objectives.

For instance, evidence shows that high unionization levels are associated with positive outcomes across multiple indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being, as well as for teacher professionalization and policy advocacy.

For this to happen, mechanisms for dialogue and teacher participation are needed.  Allowing teachers’ voices to be heard requires, among other things, developing a culture of trust and collaboration and fostering autonomy and academic freedom, a culture where teachers are respected and valued both inside and outside the classroom.

As stated in the Report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education, for the transformation of education teachers must be at the centre, and their profession revalued and reimagined as a collaborative endeavour, sparking new knowledge to bring about educational and social transformation.

This requires a new social contract with teachers, whereby national governments, trade unions, development partners, civil society and teachers themselves invest in the strengthening of social dialogue structures and processes to achieve this end successfully.  […]

Teachers as community developers engage with parents, students and stakeholders in educational decision-making processes, enhancing the overall relevance and quality of education. Furthermore, teachers adopting a reflective voice that critically examines social, cultural, and political issues affecting their educational contexts may become advocates for equity and social justice. They challenge systemic inequalities and empower themselves and students to become agents of change, across various platforms and through diverse communication channels. Given the perceived decline in the status of the profession, a new social contract in education that advances a collaborative approach among teachers, founded on social dialogue and the values it espouses, will boost teachers’ professional status thus making the profession more attractive and sustainable.

In other words, a new social contract program in education is key towards the aspirations of the SDGs.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)