Each year on October 5th, countries celebrate teachers with World Teachers’ Day. The 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers is being celebrated on this day because it established norms for teachers’ rights and responsibilities, as well as criteria for their initial and ongoing education, recruitment, employment, and the quality of their classrooms and classroom environments. To round out the coverage of the 1966 Recommendation, the Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel was adopted in 1997. Since 1994, we’ve been honoring educators everywhere on May 5.

It’s an opportunity to recognize teachers’ contributions to student learning and to consider how best to help them use their skills in the classroom and the broader world.

The International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Education International (EI) collaborate to celebrate World Teachers’ Day annually (EI).