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Events across the Asia-Pacific region, including an eclectic crowd of teachers, students, parents, and monks in Cambodia, brought together various unions and organisations to mark World Teachers’ Day.

From 3-5 Oct. World Teachers’ Day (WTD) events organised by the Cambodia Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) and the Tongan Friendly Islands Teachers’ Association (FITA), from the Education International (EI) Asia-Pacific region, attracted more than 1,500 participants.

Cambodia: Prime Minister petitioned

Members and partners of CITA celebrated WTD at the Freedom Park in the capital city, Phnom Penh, with the theme, “Promoting education quality”. Participants marched, chanted, and raised banners and placards with slogans such as “Empty stomach cannot teach”. They delivered a petition to the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport and the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, urging them to solve the teachers’ concerns and promote education quality. This petition included calls to increase the minimum wage, include a payment of a 15,000 riels (about US$3.75) bonus on national holidays, and the elimination of corruption in the education sector.

“We demand that the Government solves the problem of education quality, because the latter is dropping significantly,” said CITA President Rong Chhun. “We are very concerned about the future of young Cambodians, as the next generations are and will be competing with other youth in the region.”

He added that, due to the poor state of the education system, the country risked seeing foreigners taking jobs that Cambodians are unqualified for. He stressed that a teacher’s basic salary is still too low, even after the prime ministers recent increases, and must be increased to one million riels per month (about US$250).

Tonga: Popular support

In Tonga, FITA added a culmination event for EI’s Unite for Quality Education campaign to its WTD celebrations in the capital city, Nuku?alofa, while similar celebrations were held in various island districts.

The key WTD message was that the government in Tonga must prioritise education and teachers in the budget plan for national and international development. In addition, investment in teachers must occur in order to provide quality teachers for quality education.

At the event, the Minister of Education and Training urged teachers to join FITA to better defend quality education.

EI: Strong support for quality education

EI commends its colleagues in Cambodia and Tonga for these advocacy actions. “The events and conferences they organised for World Teachers’ Day exemplify the many events and conferences held all over Asia-Pacific around that day demonstrating a strong support within many communities for quality education,” said EI Chief Regional Coordinator Shashi Bala Singh.