World Teachers’ Day celebrated amid global staff shortage

2023’s World Teachers’ Day comes after a year of strike action and dissatisfaction among teaching unions in the UK related to pay, working conditions, and workloads.

According to the BBC, classroom teachers were paid an average of £38,982 in the 2021-22 school year in England, £39,009 in Wales, and £40,026 in Scotland.

Representatives from all four of the main teaching unions are pushing for payrises in line with inflation. In England, a joint statement in July highlighted that a 6.5 per cent rise would “allow teachers and school leaders to call off strike action”.

Following a year of frustration for teachers in the UK, World Teachers’ Day is centred around the staffing shortage that is affecting schools worldwide.

For example, in the UK, 31.3 per cent of teachers who qualified in 2017 are no longer teaching five years after they qualified, according to research published in June of this year by the Liberal Democrats.

This is part of the reason why the number of teacher vacancies has more than doubled since November 2020, rising from 1,098 to 2,334 in November 2022.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is Teachers’ Day?

The celebration was born in 1994, to honour teachers, and commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) recommendation concerning teachers’ status.

The 1966 recommendation sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.

A joint message from director-general of Unesco Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the International Labour Organization Gilbert F Houngbo, executive director of Unicef Catherine Russell, and general secretary of Education International David Edwards stated, “Today, on World Teachers’ Day, we celebrate the critical role of teachers in transforming learners’ potential by ensuring they have the tools they need to take responsibility for themselves, for others, and for the planet. We call on countries to ensure that teachers are trusted and recognised as knowledge producers, reflective practitioners, and policy partners.”

What is the theme for this year’s Teachers’ Day?

The theme for World Teachers’ Day 2023 is: “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage”.

The 2023 celebrations aim to emphasise the importance of both stopping the decline in the number of teachers and at the same time increasing that number at the top of the global agenda.

These goals are centred around practises to attract, retain, and motivate teachers and educators, according to Unesco. It will also “examine the ways in which education systems, societies, communities, and families recognise, appreciate, and actively support teachers”.

How can I celebrate World Teachers’ Day?

For more information on the day, and to find out how to participate or celebrate teachers, and download resources, visit the official website.

To watch the World Teachers’ Day opening ceremony online, which is taking place in Paris from 2.30pm to 4.30pm, register using this link.