About World Teacher’s Day

Teachers are always among the most important people in our lives because they are the ones, who provides quality education ever since we started schooling. The United Nations’ (UN) World Teachers’ Day allows not only children, but adults of all ages as well to learn to take part in and contribute to their local community or even global society and appreciate the sacrifices made by all teachers no matter what level that they are involved in and the vital impact that these professionals make to education and development of a society.

The idea of elevating the status of teachers was first proposed on October 5, 1966 when a special intergovernmental conference convened by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, in cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO).

However, it was only on 5 October 1994 World Teachers’ Day was officially proclaimed by UNESCO where the inaugural World Teachers’ Day was held and has been organized on the same date each year ever since, but the date of local events organized in most countries may differ.

During the 29th session of UNESCO’s General Conference on November 11, 1997, it was agreed by the delegates that the “Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel” was adopted.

Since its adoption, the Recommendation has been considered as an important guideline to promote teachers’ status in the interest of quality education because it refers to the rights and responsibilities of teachers in line with international standard for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, teaching and learning conditions.

 

Activities on World Teacher’s Day

You will notice that various events are organized in many countries all over the world to commemorate World Teacher’s Day, which include award ceremony to honour teachers in general or those, who gave a great impact in contributing their service to a particular community, such as the ceremony of the Hamdan Prize awards and a seminar with the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART) experts held during World Teachers’ Day 2016 at UNESCO HQ.
Additionally, international, national and local events are also organized by international organizations like TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Education International while in some countries posters are displayed via media coverage and pupils and ex-pupils are encouraged to convey their appreciation to teachers, who made a memorable contribution to their life by sending e-cards or letters.

 

Respect and appreciate teachers

World Teachers’ Day provides us the opportunity to show our highest respect and appreciate the role of teachers throughout the world as well as to the importance of the teaching community in society.

World Teachers’ Day is celebrated in many different ways, but always remember that the most important thing is the thought that counts and simply by saying thank you to your teachers for all the effort that they have contributed to our life.

Teacher appreciation during World Teachers’ Day can be done either school-wide or in the classroom such as organizing an essay competition for students in terms of giving them the opportunity to write about a teacher who had influence on their lives.

For those of you, who are IT savvy, you can even launch a website that feature downloadable “Thank you” cards for students to print, fold and send to their teachers as a token of appreciation and also allows them to upload all the activities between students and teachers at their school to be shared with other people.

In addition, you can also organize a reception for teachers with many activities, which include children’s concert, cooking competition, poetry event, theatre performances as well as friendly sporting activities between students and teachers or mixed teams.

 

Show your love and appreciation to your teachers through flowers now!