YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. World Teachers' Day, held annually on October 5 since 1994, commemorates teacher organizations worldwide. Its aim is to mobilize support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers.

According to Anahit Bakshyan, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Education, celebrating World Teachers’ Day as a calendar holiday in the country is very valuable. In her words, by celebrating this day, the state appreciates teachers and understands these are the people who are shaping the future of the country.

“The content of the celebration, however, has so much demonstrative sides which do not whatsoever excite the 40 thousand teacher army. The teacher must be compensated, demanded, elaborate techniques to inspect the management quality of schools and evaluate teaching quality. Teachers and directors must receive differentiated salaries accordingly. A good teacher must receive salary, the bad teacher must be dismissed”, she said.

UNESCO proclaimed 5 October to be World Teachers’ Day in 1994, celebrating the great step made for teachers on 5 October 1966, when a special intergovernmental conference convened by UNESCO in Paris adopted the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, in cooperation with the ILO.

This recommendation sets forth the rights and responsibilities of teachers as well as international standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, teaching and learning conditions. Since its adoption, the Recommendation has been considered an important set of guidelines to promote teachers’ status in the interest of quality education.

5 October also celebrates the adoption by the UNESCO General Conference in 1997 of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel.