(MissionNewswire) Salesian Missions joins with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and many organizations around the globe in celebrating World Teachers’ Day. The day honors the vital role that teachers play in the lives of their students. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers and is also the first world Teachers’ Day celebrated within the new Global Education 2030 Agenda adopted by the world community one year ago.

Every year since 1994, UNESCO has celebrated Oct. 5 as World Teachers’ Day. The day was designated as a way to appreciate, assess and improve educators around the world. The theme for this year’s World Teachers’ Day is “Valuing Teachers, Improving their Status” and highlights the need for more rigorous training, better conditions for employment and quality-based teacher recruitment to attract new teachers, especially young people and women from under-represented communities. The day also highlights a specific educational goal within the Sustainable Development Goals, which pledges to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

Teachers play an important role in the lives of poor youth in Salesian schools. Their work is vital to their students’ success both in and out of the classroom. Salesian missionaries educate more than 1 million youth in more than 5,300 primary and secondary schools and nearly 1,000 vocational, technical and agricultural schools in more than 130 countries around the globe.

UNESCO also noted that within the Education 2030 Framework for Action teachers must be “adequately trained, recruited and remunerated, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems.” In order to achieve this goal, UNESCO notes that by 2030, 3.2 million more teachers will be required to achieve universal primary education and 5.1 million more are needed in order to achieve universal lower secondary education.

Salesian missionaries understand the importance of education for building strong sustainable societies and are dedicated to increasing the number of trained teachers where they are needed most. Not only are the Salesians a major employer of quality teachers around the globe, they also provide the training and certification these teachers need. In addition, Salesian programs provide ongoing teacher training to ensure that teachers remain motivated and effective and their own educational needs are met once in the classroom.

In 2016, teachers at the Salesian-run Don Bosco Egmore, a secondary school located in the city of Chennai, in association with India’s CARE Institute of Behavioral Sciences, launched the Don Bosco remedial education services program to provide ongoing teacher training for Salesian teachers. The training will equip teachers to identify, handle and address the special needs of students within a regular classroom setting encouraging an inclusive educational environment.

Teachers will be educated on topics that include awareness, screening of children with learning disabilities and remedial education. This new program will educate teachers how to help a child with a learning disability to overcome the difficulties in reading, writing and other school subjects which will help them to improve their academic performance. The school-based training program will also help decrease the hardship for the parents that right now must access remedial education for a learning disability outside the school.

“Teachers are the backbone of the Salesian educational system and we are dedicated to providing the support and training they need,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian teachers face many challenges educating poor youth. Many of their students have faced severe poverty and often lack basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. Some were previously living and working on the streets and others have faced war as child soldiers or become refugees in war torn communities. Salesian teachers meet these challenges head on, providing education and hope for a brighter future.”

Salesian teachers help prepare students to easily transition from Salesian primary schools into continued higher education where they can begin to focus on finding a career path and learning the skills necessary to lead a productive life.

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Sources

Mission Newswire – India: New Teacher Training Program Developed to Help Educate Teachers about Learning Disabilities

Salesian Missions

UNESCO – Leading the Global Education 2030 Agenda

UNESCO – World Teacher’s Day