World Teachers' Day (5 October)

Tuesday, 04 October 2011 14:41

teachers

Ahead of World Teachers’ Day, UN Photo is asking you to send in photo’s of your favourite teacher, past or present, with your name and country, and tell them, in one sentence, why they mean so much to you.

Upload your photo on the UN Photo Facebook page.

World Teachers’ Day is held annually on 5 October to celebrate the essential role of teachers in providing quality education at all levels. It also commemorates the anniversary of the 1966 signature of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers.

The 2011 events will focus on the theme "Teachers for Gender Equality”.

New figures indicate that two million new teaching positions will be needed in order to meet the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Gender balance among staff is vital: countries with a higher proportion of female primary teachers are more likely to have higher enrolment rates for girls in secondary schools.

In addition, the supply of primary teachers is simply not matching the demand - particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics.

Gender equality in education is a major global concern, but despite commitments to international gender goals, the majority of out-of-school children, and two-thirds of illiterate adults are female. Women and girls thus form the largest single category of people deprived of full and equal opportunities for education.

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Edited: G. Cornwell

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