Unesco has called on governments in all over the world to improve employment and working conditions for teachers, and to make the teaching profession the first choice for young people.
“We call upon governments to make teaching a profession of first choice for young people,” said Daniello Padilla a representative of Unesco while speaking at a ceremony held yesterday at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) yesterday to celebrate World Teachers’ Day.
On behalf of the Director, Unesco Regional Office in Doha, Anna Paolini, Daniello Padilla delivered the joint United Nations message to celebrate World Teachers’ Day this year.
Padilla said that with the theme ‘Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession’, Unesco recognize the critical importance of reaffirming the value of the teaching mission.
“We also invite teacher unions, private sector employers, school principals, parent-teacher associations, school management committees, education officials and teacher trainers to share their wisdom and experiences in promoting the emergence of a vibrant teaching force,” said Padilla.
He said that without a new generation of motivated teachers, millions of learners will miss out, or continue to miss out, on their right to a quality education.
“With teachers being underpaid and undervalued, attracting and retaining talent is a challenge. Attrition rates are rising rapidly worldwide, due in part to precarious employment and scarce opportunities for continuous professional development. Furthermore, there is a lack of resources for children with special education needs and disabilities, refugees and multilingual pupils,” said Padilla. He said that today, it is urgent to take action as the figures given by the Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) are quite worrying: the world needs almost 69 million new teachers to meet the Education 2030 Agenda.
“Global inequalities could directly increase, as 70 percent of sub-Saharan countries face acute shortages of teachers, rising to 90 percent at secondary level, said Padilla.
He said that such problems are even more prominent in rural and crisis-affected areas in developing countries. Teachers, particularly women, risk isolation and violence. The resulting flux of teachers to urban areas leave rural schools short-staffed.
He added to counter this situation, the pivotal role of teachers in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals was reaffirmed at Unesco’s Global Education Meeting and at the 11th Policy
Dialogue Forum of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030. To succeed in this, education systems need an injection of fresh thinking on how to recruit, train, incentivize and retain the brightest minds for 21st century classrooms.
Giving solution to address the problems of teachers Padilla said: The media and new technologies must be instrumentalized to elevate the teaching profession, and to demonstrate its importance for human rights, social justice and climate change. Governments must also improve employment and working conditions.”
He said that this is all the more urgent given the shortage of young candidates for the 48.6 million teachers likely to retire in the coming decade.
