World Teachers' Day
Too often in our society teachers are undervalued - yet by educating the next generations they're performing one of the most important jobs of all. World Teachers' Day (WTD) is an annual opportunity to remind people of the importance ofeducation and the teachers who provide it.
World Teachers' Day began in 1994 and is today marked in over 100 countries on October 5th every year. The aim of the day, promoted by the UN and UNESCO, is to raise awareness of the importance of teachers and education in the world.
WTD commemorates the signing in 1966 of the "Recommendation concerning the status of teachers" adopted by the Special Intergovernmental Conference on the Status of Teachers.
In 2007 the UN marked WTD with a special ceremony and high-level panel discussion at UNESCO headquarters. The theme for the day was the importance of planning for an effective teaching force.
Education International (EI), the global union for the education profession, is pushing for World Teachers' Day to be recognised formally in all countries. EI uses WTD to raise awareness of the problems of the teaching profession and to campaign for improved pay, conditions and status. The theme for 2007 was working condtions: "better working conditions for teachers mean better learning conditions for learners".