Welcome to the World Teachers’ Day website!
World Teachers’ Day (WTD) provides the opportunity to draw public attention to the important role of teachers within society.
This year, the focus will be on working conditions: all around the world, we urge teachers, students and their communities to get the message across that better working conditions for teachers mean better learning conditions for learners.
We, teachers of the world, demand
- A decent working environment - a safe and healthy learning environment for teachers and learners, appropriate class-sizes and adequate pedagogical resources in the classroom;
- Living wages - salaries that allow for decent living conditions and that are regularly paid;
- Equal pay and equal rights for women - female teachers should not experience discrimination of any form and governments should ensure the empowerment of women in the education setting, in decision making and in the workplace;
- Initial and ongoing professional development - the opportunity to gain and to develop professional skills, to be kept uptodate with new information and pedagogical techniques, and to develop a career;
- Involvement in policy-making - to ensure that new policies reflect the reality of the classroom, social dialogue should be an integral part of education planning and policy formulation;
- Collective bargaining to defend and enhance teachers’ rights - working conditions, as well as quality assessments of teaching procedures, must be negotiated between representatives of the government/employers and the representative education unions.
Better working conditions for teachers mean better learning conditions for learners