World Teachers’ Day

October 5th is celebrated all over the world as World Teachers’ Day.  World Teachers’ Day provides an opportunity to not only celebrate the importance of teachers but also to reflect on the implementation of the UNESCO-ILO Recommendation on the Status of Teachers.

• The recommendation is based on the recognition of the “essential role of teachers in educational advancement and the importance of their contribution to the development of man and modern society” and intended “to ensure that teachers enjoy the status commensurate with this role”.
• It is a comprehensive document that covers all aspects of teachers’ work, teachers’ salary, and teacher education. Then it was created by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1994 to celebrate the educators of the world.
• The global holiday is held on Oct. 5 each year in recognition of the special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris that adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers on that date in 1966.
• The recommendation declared education a fundamental human right, acknowledged the essential role of teachers in society, set international standards and defined teachers’ responsibilities.
• For most, Oct. 5 is just a day to pay their teachers a little bit of extra gratitude for shaping their lives and minds and those of their children.
  UNESCO holds an annual conference in Paris where it hands out the Hamdan Prize awards, but the organization recommends those who can not attend the Paris event take the opportunity “to discuss, compare, learn, argue, share and improve” wherever they are in the world.