This year, the World Teachers’ Day celebration in Palestine took place at Al-Ameer Hall in Jenin. The event was opened by Dr. Basri Saleh, Assistant Deputy Minister for Planning and Development and Dr. Sabri Saidam, Minister of Education and Higher Education, followed by words from Dr. Lodovico Folin Calabi, Head of Office and UNESCO Representative in Palestine. Thereafter, representative of the General Union for Palestinian Teachers, expressed his vision for Palestine’s teachers in the future. During the event, teachers from schools behind the barrier were honored for their continuous commitment towards quality education and building sustainable societies.

In his opening speech, Dr. Basri Saleh reminded that “there will be no development in quality education without teachers.” Moreover, his Excellency Dr. Sabri Saidam congratulated all the world’s teachers and emphasized greatly the daily challenges for Palestinian teachers caused by the ongoing occupation. He stated that “teaching in Palestine is more than a just a profession as it bears the duty of holding a message for the people”.

” Dr. Folin Calabi highlighted the essential role of teachers as “the key to sustainability and national capacity in achieving learning and creating societies based on knowledge, values and ethics”, but also accentuated the challenges the world’s teachers are facing every day,He pointed out the international goals and standards and called for working together to address these challenges “brought about by staff shortages, poor training and low status. I am sure that each and every teacher in Palestine can point to situations where staff, training or status has been an issue”.

In addition, Dr. Folin-Calabi reiterated the new education goals discussed at the World Education Forum in Korea earlier this year about the importance of the empowerment of teachers and recalled that the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2015, included a goal on education and a specific objective to “substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training” by 2030.

The representative of the General Union for Palestinian Teachers declared that the General Union of Palestinian Teachers will continuously “cooperate on a regional and international level to support the development of Palestinian education and make the voices of Palestinian teachers heard.” On the first World Teachers' Day of a new education agenda of global development, UNESCO appeals to the international community to value, support, and empower teachers of the world. For it is they who will educate a new generation of children who, in turn, will carry forward all our goals to build a better world for all.

joint message from the Heads of UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF, UNDP and Education International on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day, 5 October 2015 unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002347/234755e.pdf

For further information, please contact Majd Beltaji, Public Information Officer of the UNESCO Office in Ramallah at m.beltaji@unesco.org