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By Joyce Mukucha
Today, UN agencies have joined the rest of the global community in celebrating the World Teachers Day by recognising how educators have continued to remain vigilant in executing their duties in maintaining learning continuity despite the educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
Celebrated annually on 5 October since 1994, World Teachers Day provides an important opportunity to call on Governments and the international community to spotlight teachers around the globe and their challenges, and share effective and promising policy responses.
The day is co-convened in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF, and Education International (EI).
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.
UN agencies chiefs said for the education system to recover from the COVID pandemic, it requires more investment in the well-being, training, professional development, and working conditions of the world’s 71 million educators.
They described teachers as the driving force behind ‘global education recovery’ from COVID-19 highlighting that teachers play a crucial role as they called upon nations to strengthen mechanisms aimed at supporting educators to ensure that every learner access quality education.
“Today we celebrate the exceptional dedication and courage of all teachers, their capacity to adapt and to innovate under very challenging and uncertain conditions”, said UNESCO head Audrey Azoulay, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief Henrietta Fore, top International Labour Organization (ILO) official, Guy Ryder, and Education International’s leader, David Edwards, in a joint statement.
“On World Teachers’ Day, we are not only celebrating every teacher. We are calling on countries to invest in them and prioritize them in global education recovery efforts so that every learner has access to a qualified and supported teacher. Let’s stand with our teachers!,” they added.
According to UNESCO, one and a half years into the COVID-19 crisis, the 2021 World Teachers’ Day will focus on the support teachers need to fully contribute to the recovery process under the theme “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery”.
A five-day series of global and regional events, it has been highlighted, will showcase the effect that the pandemic has had on the teaching profession, highlight effective and promising policy responses, and aim to establish the steps that need to be taken to ensure that teaching personnel develops their full potential.
Apart from this, the five-day series of events will include panel discussions and online sessions to examine effective policies, evidence, and innovative practices to support teachers for successful recovery, build resilience and reimagine education in the post-pandemic world, and advance the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) of inclusive and equitable education.
“This year, World Teachers’ Day celebrations will take place in conjunction with the meeting of the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART), which will be running from 4 to 8 October 2021. A calendar of events and the communications materials will be published online and updated here regularly,” UNESCO said.
The UN agencies further underscored that teachers are the principal actors of the global education recovery efforts and are key in accelerating progress towards inclusive and equitable quality education for every learner, in every circumstance.
They pointed out that from using technology creatively to providing socio-emotional support to their students and reaching those most at risk of falling behind, teachers have been at the heart of the educational response to the COVID-19 crisis.
“Now is the time to recognize the exceptional role teachers play and to empower them with the training, professional development, support and working conditions they need to deploy their talent. Education recovery will be successful if it is conducted hand-in-hand with teachers, giving them voice and space to participate in decision-making”, top officials said.
According to UN News, UNESCO pointed out that there are some challenges which were abound to teachers.
“As of 27 September, schools have fully reopened in 124 countries, partially in 44 others, and remained fully closed in 16. These figures highlight both the need for attention to teachers’ health and well-being as schools reopen, and for continued professional development to integrate and deploy successful educational technology.”
According to UNESCO’s research, 71 percent of countries have given some priority to vaccinating teachers, but only 19 included them in the first round of inoculations, while 59 other nations have not prioritized them in roll-out plans.
More effort, it has been emphasised, is needed to support teachers where and when remote and hybrid teaching is still necessary.
“Putting teachers at the heart of the education recovery this year’s focus – will require increasing the size of the workforce.”
To celebrate 2021 World Teachers’ Day, the conveners and partners, including the World Bank, the Global Education Coalition, and civil society organizations, will organize global and regional events and an advocacy campaign with the participation of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.
In July this year, a survey by UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, and OECD survey revealed that just 40 percent of countries trained three-quarters or more of teachers on technology related to distance learning during the pandemic.
“Only six out of ten countries provided teachers with professional development on psychosocial and emotional support. 58 percent of countries provided teachers with content for remote learning, while 42 percent provided them with ICT tools and ensured internet connectivity. Just under a third of 103 countries surveyed recruited additional teachers for school reopening, but the global gap remains high,” the survey revealed.
It also figured out that 69 million more teachers are needed worldwide to ensure universal primary and secondary education by 2030 (SDG target 4.1) and Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to need an additional 15 million primary and secondary teachers by 2030.