The World Teachers’ Day holiday was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1994. The day is notable because the UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Teachers was approved at a special intergovernmental meeting on this day in 1966. The suggestion gave teachers a summary of their duties and privileges. The historical recommendation addresses concerns with education personnel policy, recruiting, and initial training in addition to the topic of teachers’ ongoing professional development United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) a division of the UN established with advancing global collaboration in the fields of education, the arts, the sciences, and culture.
SADTU raise their dissatisfaction regarding teacher’s workplace
The largest teachers union in South Africa, the South African Democratic Teachers Union(SADTU), taking a swipe on today’s day expressing their grievances in a statement that reads “Teachers in South Africa do not receive adequate development and the induction of new teachers is uncoordinated. Teachers are exposed to more workload due to changes in the curriculum and the learner/teacher ratio is high. The misallocation of learning areas demoralizes the teachers who have to teach learning areas they are not trained for.”On October 12, SADTU will have its official World Teachers Day event in Mpumalanga.
School Safety
On the occasion of World Teachers’ Day, President Cyril Ramaphosa brought attention back to school safety. “We are concerned about the apparent increase in incidents of violence against teachers and learners, often perpetrated by criminals who come into schools. We need to work together, across society, to ensure that our schools are safe,” the President said at the National General Council of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) held in Kempton Park, Gauteng.
The President stated that there is a serious need for everyone to work together to make sure that schools are safe since occurrences of violence, abuse, and bullying in the nation’s schools are a serious problem.
“We are concerned about the apparent increase in incidents of violence against teachers and learners, often perpetrated by criminals who come into schools. We need to work together, across society, to ensure that our schools are safe. This means that SGBs (school governing bodies), CPFs [community policing forums], communities, local businesses, unions, and the police need to work together to ensure that every single school in the country is a place where educators and learners feel secure and safe,” the President said.
President Ramaphosa said World Teachers’ Day must be utilized to focus on and celebrate the significant role played by teachers throughout the world in advancing human progress. He asserted that teachers are in charge of fostering the growth of the nation’s most priceless resource: its youth.
“More than any mineral or natural asset, more than any product or industry, the children of this land will shape our future and determine our fortunes. That puts a lot of pressure on teachers to properly instruct and prepare our kids. The rest of society is likewise under enormous pressure to support, value, and honor our teachers. Let’s take this opportunity to recognize and honor the committed teaching force that this nation has.”
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