Today we appreciate our masters, our sensei, our maestros and gurus.
World Teachers' Day celebrates teachers worldwide. It aims to mobilise support for teachers so that they can continue to meet the learning needs of future generations.
For the world's poorest children, going to school is a pathway out of poverty. What is a school without a teacher?
UNESCO estimates that an additional 1.7 million teachers are needed globally to achieve universal primary school education by 2015. Attracting and retaining teachers and providing them with the necessary skills and support is vital to improving students' learning achievement.
Even the most experienced and dedicated teachers face enormous hurdles in their task to give children the best start. Hunger and malnutrition for example diminish a child's capacity to learn. This can lead to late enrolment, grade repetition and early drop out.
Economic pressures in poor households play a major role in children not attending or dropping out of school. Poor families may rely on children to work or earn an income. Paying school fees can put education out of their reach. Parents have less incentive to keep children in school if they perceive education to be of inadequate quality. Economic pressures can also widen gender disparities if the education of girls is not valued as highly as the education of boys.
Australia is helping teachers, families and communities overcome these challenges so that all children, including those who are excluded by factors such as ethnicity, gender, disability, remoteness or conflict can receive a quality education.
We are providing training and professional development opportunities to teachers, giving poor households financial and nutritional support, building classrooms and equipping schools with teaching and learning materials and developing relevant curricula.
Our support for effective global organisations, like the Global Partnership for Education is also helping to improve teacher effectiveness by training teachers and supporting them to provide a good quality education.