Quality Teachers for Quality Education

World Teachers Day is celebrated every year on October 5, the anniversary of the UN adoption of a major declaration on teaching in 1966. This year's theme is "Quality Teachers for Quality Education," and many events are taking place around the world to promote that ideal from the grassroots on up to the highest levels of government.

OneWorld's Southeast Europe center reports that Macedonia is marking the day for the first time this year, as major teachers' groups in the country are presenting Teacher of the Year awards and discussing the role of teachers in society.

In India, OneWorld's South Asia center has highlighted two articles showing how innovative, student-centered approaches can get the poorest of the poor into school, keep them there, and teach them basic skills.

"The Learning Curve" tells the story of the Learning to Read program in a cotton-producing region of northern India. "Thank God, our children have finally begun to read and write. Maybe they will one day be freed from this drudgery of farming," one local resident said. Plus, many of the program's young female teachers "have blossomed into confident m'ams respected by both young and old."

In Mysore, near Bangalore in southern India, a partnership between a non-profit organization and the regional government is helping make education accessible and fun for children living in slum areas. "Children are taught using 'play way' methods using low cost toys and learning tools made out of industrial waste. The child is made to enjoy the school going experience. Such a child is bound to pursue studies and less likely to drop out," said a program advisor. According to the article, "Starting a Revolution," teachers get specialized training and much of the program is run on volunteer labor.

In Belgium, Education International, a federation of teachers and education workers around the world, is releasing a major new report Thursday on the status of the teaching profession and convening an international round table of experts to discuss issues of quality education.

"Governments around the world must improve salaries and working conditions in education if they are to avert a predicted shortage of 18 million teachers and achieve the Millennium Development Goal of Education for All by 2015," the group said in a statement.

At the more grassroots level, the U.S.-based non-profit Teachers Without Borders is working year-round to close the educational divide through teacher training and helping to build and support community teaching and learning centers. "Teachers are the key to the future, the glue of civilization, and have the capacity to be a catalyst for positive change," the group says.


For more on the status of global education, including success stories and viewpoints from international non-profits and individuals around the world, check out the latest edition of OneWorld's Perspectives magazine, entitled "Learning the Future."


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