World Teachers' Day: Respect to the diligent efforts in critical Covid times

| OCTOBER 05, 2021, 12:24 AM IST
World Teachers' Day: Respect to the diligent efforts in critical Covid times

World Teachers' Day is celebrated on October 5 every year since 1994. The day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers.

The aim was to draw attention to concerns regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation. It also aims to focus on further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. 

Historically, the UNESCO General Conference even adopted the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel in 1997, following this adoption.

World Teachers' Day aims at appreciating, assessing and improving the condition of educators across the world. Also, this day is seen as an opportunity to consider and address issues related to teachers and teaching. To celebrate World Teachers' Day, the UNESCO and Education International (EI) holds a campaign every year focused on different themes to provide a better understanding of teachers and their profession as they play an important role in the development of students and society.

The historical recommendation addresses the education personnel policy, recruitment, initial training as well as the issue of continuing education of teachers. World Teachers’ Day holds utmost significance as it is celebrated to mark progress and reflect on ways to counter the challenges relating to the teaching profession.

This day mainly focuses on their employment and working conditions, which are neglected at times. These guidelines elevate teachers’ status in the interest of quality education.

This year, the theme of World Teachers' Day is "Teachers at the heart of education recovery".


DETERMINED AMID COVID

Teachers set the foundation for every child and the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is bestowed by them.

There have been many superheroes since the pandemic hit the world. They have kept going out and about to do their work while the rest of the world was told to stay at home. Most of them are acknowledged and applauded for the work they did to keep the world going as it came to a standstill due to the lockdown.

But there is one class of people who played a big role during this pandemic to maintain a semblance of normality and they are our teachers and educational staff. 

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers worldwide have been under a huge amount of pressure to adapt classroom delivery to a fully online or hybrid model, often going to incredible lengths to ensure that their students did not miss out on their education.

Teachers, the world over, have been working harder than ever to do their job in a totally new ‘online’ setting that required them to turn to new methods of teaching, adapt to and overcome its challenges, and then stir their students and their parents through the unfamiliar world of online classes.

The teachers have kept the classes going, conducted exams, completed academic sessions, carried out complex standard operating procedures (SOPs) to keep everyone safe when schools reopened and, most of all, helped their students to cope with the pressures of the ‘new normal’.

It is because of these efforts that the teachers of the world are being celebrated and recognised on World Teachers’ Day 2021, October 5, with the theme “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”. According to The United Nations (UNESCO), this theme for Teachers’ Day is “in respect of their determined and diligent efforts in the crucial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Every year on Teachers’ Day there is talk of students showing their gratitude to their teachers by giving them cards and gifts, showering tributes in writing and speeches, and other such touching gestures.



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