The World is revering teachers today. Held annually on October 5 since 1994, the World Teachers' Day is observed to commemorate the adoption of 1996 ILO/ UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of teachers, their rights and responsibilities and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.
UNESCO co-convenes the World Teachers' Day with UNICEF, UNDP, the International Labour Organization, and Education International.
This year's theme for the teachers' day is "Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession".
"With the theme, Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession, we recognize the critical importance of reaffirming the value of the teaching mission. We call upon governments to make teaching a profession of first choice for young people. We also invite teacher unions, private sector employers, school principals, parent-teacher associations, school management committees, education officials and teacher trainers to share their wisdom and experiences in promoting the emergence of a vibrant teaching force," said the conveners in a joint message.
"The media and new technologies must be instrumentalized to elevate the teaching profession, and to demonstrate its importance for human rights, social justice and climate change. Governments must also improve employment and working conditions," the message adds.
On the theme for the teachers' day the message reads, "Without a new generation of motivated teachers, millions of learners will miss out, or continue to miss out, on their right to a quality education."
In their message the conveners have also highlighted the reason that dissuades youngsters from teaching profession. "With teachers being underpaid and undervalued, attracting and retaining talent is a challenge," they said.
As per the data given by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics the world needs almost 69 million new teachers to meet the Education 2030 Agenda.
"To succeed in this, education systems need an injection of fresh thinking on how to recruit, train, incentivize and retain the brightest minds for 21st century classrooms," the conveners have said in the joint message.
The joint message has been given by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO; Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization; Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director; UNICEF Achim Steiner, Administrator, UNDP and David Edwards, General Secretary, Education International.
India celebrates Teachers' Day on September 5.
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