World Teachers’ Day-5th October 2022
“The transformation of education begins with teachers
Every year World Teachers’ Day is held on 5th October to celebrate the incredible work teachers do in educating young people across the globe and to help improve the working conditions of all educators.
Teachers contribute massively to society and shape future generations, inspire learning, and even save lives. Teachers can influence and shape their students’ perspectives, equip them with necessary social skills and help them function happily and healthily in contemporary society, and contribute to their communities in return.
Since the event was established in 1994, a specific theme is marked every year and is now celebrated in more than 100 countries. The theme for World Teachers’ Day 2022 is “The transformation of education begins with teachers.”
THE HISTORY OF WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY
It is an event that commemorates the signing of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) concerning the Status of Teachers, which took place on October 5th, 1966. World Teachers’ Day is also known as International Teachers’ Day. 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. The day allows the world to come together to celebrate how teachers are transforming education but also to reflect on the support they need to fully deploy their talent and vocation, and to rethink the way ahead for the profession globally.
WORLD TEACHERS DAY 2022: The transformation of Education begins with Teachers
The theme for World Teachers Day 2022 is “The transformation of education begins with teachers” aims to address the role the teachers have been playing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A UNESCO statement said: “The issue of teacher leadership in relation to crisis responses is not just timely, but critical in terms of the contributions teachers have made to provide remote learning, support vulnerable populations, reopen schools, and ensure that learning gaps have been mitigated.
UNESCO STATEMENT ON WORLD TEACHERS DAY
UNESCO statement on World Teachers Day reads. The Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education recognizes teachers as key to the achievement of the Education 2030 agenda, and the world Teachers Day has become the occasion to mark progress and reflect on ways to counter the remaining challenges for the promotion of the teaching profession
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON EDUCATION
School closures due to COVID-19 have brought significant disruptions to education across the world and emerging evidence from even the highest-income countries indicate that the pandemic is giving rise to learning losses and increases in inequality. To reduce and reverse the long-term negative effects, there is pressing need to develop and implement learning recovery programs, protect educational budgets, and prepare for future shocks by “building back better.”
THE STATE OF THE GLOBAL EDUCATION CRISIS: A PATH TO RECOVERY
The recent report “The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery” produced jointly by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank sounded the alarm that this generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, because of COVID-19-related school closures and economic shocks.
This new projection far exceeds the $10 trillion estimate released in 2020 and reveals that the impact of the pandemic is more severe than previously thought. The pandemic and school closures not only jeopardized children’s health and safety with domestic violence and child labour increasing, but also impacted student learning substantially. The report also indicates that in low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in Learning Poverty already above 50 percent before the pandemic could reach 70 percent largely as a result of the long school closures and the relative ineffectiveness of remote learning.
THE NEED FOR SUSTAINED COMMITMENT AT ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY
Learning recovery and acceleration requires sustained national political commitment, from the highest political levels to all members of society. Turning the tide against the longer-term learning crisis will require national coalitions for learning recovery coalitions that include families, educators, civil society, the business community, and other ministries beyond the education ministry.
COMMITMENT NEEDS TO BE FURTHER TRANSLATED INTO CONCRETE ACTION
Commitment needs to be further translated into concrete action at the national and subnational levels, with better assessment of learning to fill the vast data gaps, clear targets for progress, and evidence-based plans for learning recovery and acceleration. Given the scale of the challenges and scarcity of resources, countries need to concentrate their efforts on the most cost-effective approaches to tackle learning poverty.
The RAPID framework
The World Bank proposed RAPID framework that offers a menu of evidence-based interventions that education systems can implement to help children recover lost learning, and to accelerate long-term progress in foundational learning. Governments in partnership with all the stakeholders must make sure that education systems:
• Reach every child and keep them in school
• Assess learning levels regularly
• Prioritize teaching the fundamentals
• Increase the efficiency of instruction, including through catch-up learning
• Develop psychosocial health and well-being.
These interventions must be implemented as part of a national learning recovery program that can also serve as a springboard for building more effective, equitable, and resilient education systems. To lead to broad, sustained change, the program will need to be accompanied by much-needed systemic strengthening. This is critical to closing learning gaps as much as possible by 2030 to ensure that all children and youth have the opportunity to shape the bright futures they deserve.
On the occasion of the celebration of the teacher’s day 2022, I invite the teaching community to reflect on the statement made by the UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education Stefania Giannini: “These estimates ring the alarm louder than ever on the urgency to prioritize education in recovery plans and beyond. We must invest in holistic and transformative policies that act on the multiple causes of the learning crisis, mobilize the international community, and put in place all the conditions to ensure that no child falls behind. The Transforming Education Pre-Summit, from June 28 to 30 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and the Transforming Education Summit, on 19 September in New York, are our opportunity to set learning on the right tracks and fulfill the SDG4 promise to ensure quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Reedha Rajendra Coomar
Vice-Président du Réseau International d’Innovation et de Prospective (Québec)
Secretaire de l’Observatoire de la Parentalite de l’Océan Indien (Reunion Island)
President de la Fondation Pour L’Enfance Terre de Paix
Chairman Centre for Holistic Education and Development
President du Comite 17 Octobre
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