Giornata Mondiale degli Insegnanti

5 ottobre 2015

Giornata Mondiale degli Insegnanti

La Giornata Mondiale degli Insegnanti, istituita dall’UNESCO il 5 ottobre 1966, è dedicata quest’anno al tema della «parità di genere» allo scopo di celebrare una professione che ha una grandissima dimensione femminile.

Come emerge dai dati pubblicati dall’Istituto UNESCO per la Statistica, a livello mondiale le donne rappresentano il 62% degli insegnanti della scuola primaria; ma mentre molti paesi, soprattutto nell’Europea orientale,  registrano picchi di oltre 98% di insegnanti donna, ci sono invece intere regioni, come l’Africa Sub-Sahariana, dove la componente femminile è molto scarsa e dove le condizioni di lavoro sono in via di peggioramento.

Il rapporto dell'UNESCO mette inoltre in evidenza alcune preoccupanti carenze su scala globale: mancano all’appello almeno due milioni di  insegnanti per raggiungere l’obiettivo internazionale di garantire a tutti l’accesso all’istruzione primaria entro l’anno 2015, definito dagli accordi «Education for All» e dai Millennium Development Goals. L’insufficienza di insegnanti non riguarda peraltro solo i Paesi in via di sviluppo. Nonostante l’Africa Sub-Sahariana sia la regione più carente, anche gli Stati Uniti, la Spagna, l’Irlanda, la Svezia, ed anche l’Italia, rientrano nella lista dei 112 Stati che sono colpiti da questo problema.

UNESCO will celebrate World Teachers’ Day (WTD) on October 5 by highlighting the importance of empowering teachers to achieve inclusive and sustainable global development.

This year, the Day comes just after the adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations’ General Assembly and represents the first opportunity to set out a roadmap for teachers in the new Education 2030 agenda.

The Day is celebrated at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris with an opening ceremony and address by Qian Tang, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, followed by a panel discussion and roundtables on Education 2030 and the importance of Early Childhood Education (ECE).

Despite global recognition of the importance of teachers in changing children’s lives and building sustainable and prosperous societies, they are all too often undervalued and under-empowered, particularly in the area of ECE.

Worldwide there is a growing shortage of quality teachers and inadequate professional training. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates that to achieve universal primary education by 2020 countries will need to recruit a total of 10.9 million primary teachers.

All these factors result in equity gaps in access and learning which mostly affect the poorest regions and schools and the earliest grades. This is particularly damaging, as there is clear evidence that the earliest years of a child’s development are the most critical.

ECE teaching personnel in much of the world receive minimum or no training, low pay and benefits with poor career prospects, and have low socio‐economic status overall.

This year World Teachers’ Day highlights the need to empower all teachers through the provision of decent, safe and healthy working conditions, trust, professional autonomy and academic freedom.

On the same day, UNESCO, the Education For All Global Monitoring Report, and Education International are launching a sign up campaign for teachers willing to become advocates for education and help lobby for progress towards the new sustainable development agenda. Teachers signing up will receive advocacy toolkits, and country specific information to help them lobby for change in their country.

Taking part in the Paris event will be Permanent Delegations, NGOs in partnership/affiliated to UNESCO, teachers and teacher training institutions and representatives of global/regional networks on ECE.