World Teachers' Day

A new fact sheet by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) & Teacher Task Force, estimates that only 14% of low-income countries have policies mandating continuing professional development for primary school teachers. The trend is declining, with the share of trained primary teachers in sub-Saharan Africa dropping from 85% to 69%, and trained secondary teachers from 79% to 59%, between 2000 and 2024. This lack of support for teachers undermines educational quality and equity, contributing to more teachers leaving the profession. The global shortage highlights the urgency: 44 million additional teachers are needed by 2030 to achieve universal primary and secondary education. " On this World Teachers’ Day, UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF and Education International call on governments, partners and the international community to make a collective commitment to ensuring that collaboration is recognized as a norm within the teaching profession – because it is only through effective cooperat...

  Всемирный день учителя 2025 года отмечает профессию учителя как профессию, основанную на сотрудничестве, черпающую свою силу в прочных человеческих связях, общей ответственности и устойчивой профессиональной идентичности; Это мероприятие вновь подтвердит незаменимую роль учителей и необходимость вернуть доверие, солидарность и профессиональную активность в центр образования. Всемирный день учителя служит всемирным событием, чтобы отметить профессию учителя и призвать международное сообщество к конкретным действиям по преобразованию профессии учителя в профессию, основанную на сотрудничестве.

 2025年世界教師日 旨在慶祝教學作為一種協作性職業，其力量源自於牢固的人際關係、共同的責任和可持續的職業認同。 這項活動將重申教師不可取代的作用，以及將信任、團結和專業能力重新定位為教育核心的必要性。 世界教師日是全球慶祝教師職業的時刻，並敦促國際社會採取具體行動，將教學重塑為協作性職業。

  El Día Mundial de los Docentes 2025 celebra la docencia como una profesión colaborativa, que se fortalece gracias a fuertes vínculos humanos, responsabilidades compartidas e identidades profesionales sostenibles. El evento reafirmará el papel insustituible del profesorado y la necesidad de reposicionar la confianza, la solidaridad y la autonomía profesional en el centro de la educación. El Día Mundial de los Docentes sirve como un momento global para celebrar la profesión docente e instar a la comunidad internacional a tomar medidas concretas para redefinir la docencia como una profesión colaborativa.

 La Journée mondiale des enseignants 2025 célèbre l'enseignement comme une profession collaborative, qui puise sa force dans des liens humains forts, des responsabilités partagées et des identités professionnelles durables. Cet événement réaffirmera le rôle irremplaçable des enseignants et la nécessité de replacer la confiance, la solidarité et l'action professionnelle au cœur de l'éducation. La Journée mondiale des enseignants est un moment mondial pour célébrer la profession enseignante et exhorter la communauté internationale à prendre des mesures concrètes pour repenser l'enseignement comme une profession collaborative. Get the poster!

  Globally, three quarters of countries’ pre-service training requirements include Initial teacher education ; however, North Africa, East and Southeast Asia and Oceania have the fewest countries requiring a teaching diploma. Of the different types of requirements for teaching in addition to academic level qualifications that were collected in the data, the requirement to have a teacher diploma that is granted by a teacher training program was the most prevalent. About three in four countries require a teaching diploma, and in all but three regions, South and Southeast Asia, Oceania and North Africa, 70 percent or more countries required a teaching diploma (Figure 7). Note that teacher training programs are based on national definitions and differ by country (see discussion in Box 3). Many low-income countries have alternative pathways to teaching that do not require any pre-service teaching. Many countries that have experienced rapid expansion in access to education or do not ha...

  The current teacher framework has a key focus on quality of teaching . Two concepts are key in the indicator framework. First, “trained” aims to identify the extent to which the teacher workforce has specific  pedagogical pre- and in-service training (indicator 4.c.1) while the second concept “qualified” (indicator 4.c.3) attempts to measure the percentage of teachers meet the minimum academic requirements to teach regardless of the nature of the diploma.  Teacher training could be acquired through different routes. The first is through teacher training programs (TTP) either concurrent (teacher training from the outset through general and professional subjects) or consecutive (when holders of tertiary diploma move to a teacher training program) that grants a teacher diploma. A second route is teacher training acquired through a short professionally oriented or employment-based training that combines work in schools with a tailored training program. Lastly, the access...

Effective teacher policies are key for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Teachers are the most important school-level factor contributing to quality education. However, an estimated 69 million additional teachers are needed globally to meet the Sustainable Development Goal’s target 4.c to increase the supply of qualified teachers, especially in low-income contexts, and to fulfil the Education 2030 Agenda. The development of holistic and comprehensive teacher policies supporting a coordinated management of the teacher workforce is an important step to ensure countries can deliver on the promise of quality education. Based on this understanding and to assist national decision-makers and education officials, the Teacher Task Force and UNESCO developed the Teacher Policy Development Guide. This publication shares the experience of nine sub-Saharan African countries which used the Guide. It contains new insights and lessons on key processes, content, structure and support that ar...