World Teachers’ Day 2018

04 October 2018

 

World Teachers’ Day focuses this year on the right to education, which means the right to qualified teachers. Held annually on 5 October since 1994, this day both celebrates the merits of the teaching profession while also highlighting the major challenges facing teachers and ultimately their students.

A quality education depends heavily on well-trained teachers. However, many teachers today have not received the required pedagogical training and struggle to impart vital life skills to children and youth in overcrowded classrooms. According to 2017 data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 85% of primary school teachers worldwide have received teacher training. However, vast regional disparities exist, with this figure dipping to 64% in sub-Saharan Africa and 71% in South Asia.

UNESCO chose this year’s theme to remind the global community that the right to quality education and lifelong learning - as reflected in the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) - cannot be achieved without trained and qualified teachers.

9 pertinent questions on teacher management

With the link between teachers and a quality education clearer than ever before, teacher management has become an important area for national policies focused on improving learning outcomes. For World Teachers’ Day, IIEP has put together a series of salient controversies and debates on the way forward in improving teacher management in nine key questions.

Read 9 questions on teacher management

 

Make sure to also head over to the IIEP Learning Portal for a blog on learning from the private sector in addressing teacher’s intrinsic motivation.

IIEP expert joins RFI radio show

STAY TUNED!

As we celebrate World Teachers’ Day, Barbara Tournier, Programme Specialist at IIEP, also joined a panel on Radio France Internationale (RFI) to discuss the status of the teaching profession and share insights from IIEP’s work on teacher careers. Together with Frédérique Rolet (General Secretary of the National Syndicate for Secondary Education) and François Robert (an independent education consultant), the show covers issues of attraction to the profession, salary levels, and working conditions.

At the start of the programme, a teacher from a public school in Cameroon gives insights into the reality of his school. He shares the challenges of his every day working conditions, with overcrowded classrooms and unfinished school buildings, while also sharing the pride and satisfaction he derives from seeing pupils learn. In addition, the question as to why some teachers try to circumvent their geographic assignments is illustrated with a testimony from a French teacher.

RFI is listened to by over 37 million people worldwide, mostly in Africa. 7 milliards de voisins is a societal programme presented by journalist Emmanuelle Bastide that is aired daily from 12:10 to 13:00 (Paris time).