The World Teachers Day is commemorated by UNESCO since 1994. It is on this day the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers was adopted in 1966. In 1997, Status of Higher – Education Teaching Personnel was adopted.
SDG 4 adopted on Education recognizes teachers as a key to the achievement of Education 2030 agenda. Since then, World Teachers Day became the occasion to mark progress and reflect ways to counter the challenges in teaching profession
Theme: Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession.
The official event of the day is to be conducted in collaboration with UNICEF, UNDP and ILO.
Significance of the theme
The 21st century is not an easy time for a teacher. Teachers were once respected as highly qualified professionals. Unfortunately, today they are the scape goats for the failure of education according to UNESCO.
The biggest problem is that the young professionals are not showing interest to take the profession. Over 69 million teachers are required to achieve the SDG 4 education targets. They are as follows
- Ensure all girls and boys have access to early childhood development and pre- primary education
- Ensure there are equal access to all men and women to vocational, technical and vocational skills
- Ensure the youth have skills for employment, entrepreneurship and decent jobs.
- Expand the scholarships available to the developing countries.
- Increase the supply of qualified teachers through international cooperation
Need for action
According to UNDP,
- In developing countries, around 91% of children remain out of school. There are around 57 million children out of school
- More than half of the children are not enrolled in primary education in Sub – Saharan Africa
- 103 million youth lack basic literacy skills
- Especially in conflict – affected zones, more than 50% of children are out of school.