Ei-iE

I want to acknowledge the incredible work of Education International's member organizations worldwide, who are marking this day with their own celebrations and actions, standing united in our call to value, respect, and invest in teachers. From rural to urban schools, across both the Global South and North, they amplify the voices of teachers committed to building a better future for their students.

On this World Teachers' Day, I’m honored to speak to you as we celebrate teachers, but also confront the urgent challenges facing our profession.

We stand at a critical moment for public education. Teachers across the globe are overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. Many are being driven out of the profession they love and that our future depends on. As fewer young people enter teaching, the global shortage grows. This puts more strain on those who remain and worsens their working conditions—ultimately threatening quality education for all.

To address the shortage, and attract and retain the teachers we need, we must address the root causes: low salaries, increased workloads, inadequate working conditions, and lack of professional autonomy. A well-paid, well-supported, respected teaching profession, with job security, is essential to ensuring the right to quality education for all.

For this to happen, teachers and their unions must be central to decision-making. Let’s be clear: transformation starts by valuing teacher voices. But this goes beyond lip service. It demands action.

True transformation starts by placing teachers at the heart of the policies that shape our schools and higher education institutions. This requires genuine social dialogue—ensuring that teachers are consulted, and their pedagogical expertise is trusted. Teachers must have the professional autonomy to lead, innovate, and make decisions that shape the future of education, that shape a more sustainable and just future for all of us.

Supporting this, the recommendations from the United Nations High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession provide a clear roadmap to address the teacher shortage and create stronger, more sustainable public education systems. The recommendations make it clear: teacher participation in social dialogue is essential. Teachers must have professional autonomy and be active participants in shaping curricula, pedagogies, and education policies. Governments must act now by implementing these recommendations, establishing national commissions to assess and tackle teacher shortages. These commissions must prioritize social dialogue and collective bargaining, ensuring that teachers and their unions play a key role in shaping policies and improving working conditions.

Yet, far from this ideal, Education International’s latest Global Status of Teachers report reveals alarming facts: teachers worldwide face legal restrictions and practical barriers that prevent them from organizing, bargaining and, if necessary, striking for their rights. In some countries, social dialogue exists but can be weak in key areas like teacher pay, health and well-being, and professional development.

We cannot ignore the reality that, for millions of teachers—especially in crisis settings, conflict zones, and underserved communities—there is no platform for social dialogue at all. These teachers lack both resources and a voice, despite holding together fragile public education systems and their communities. They aren’t just educators—they are the hope for the children who strive for, and deserve, a better future.

Let me share some examples: Laures Park, an indigenous teacher and union leader from New Zealand, has spent her life advocating for Māori students and teachers. Her work demonstrates that cultural respect and decolonizing education is key for inclusion. Tatiana Zamorska, from Ukraine, continues to teach amid air raids, keeping her students learning despite power outages and bombings. Haneen Bazian, an early childhood education teacher and union officer in Palestine, works tirelessly to support teachers and children as they cope with the trauma of genocide, all while contending with her own emotional well-being. René Sucup, a union leader in Guatemala, was recently murdered for defending teachers' rights. Deng Loku, in South Sudan, has not been paid in nearly a year, but remains committed to his students. And in Afghanistan, women like Amina teach girls in secret, defying repression to fight for their right to education under the Taliban regime.

These are just a few examples of the countless stories of teachers, everywhere, who continue to support their students despite unimaginable conditions. They do so because they know their work is critical for the most vulnerable. But they cannot do it alone.

Their voices must be heard. As President of Education International, it is my duty to bring these voices to you today. Because without them, any talk of education reform is meaningless.

Real change starts by listening to those living the reality of our classrooms—especially in the toughest environments. Only then can we build a truly transformative public education system for every student, everywhere.

I also want to take this opportunity to reiterate Education International's call for peace. We cannot have quality education without peace. Wars and armed conflicts are the greatest violation of human rights and a threat to the right to education. And let me be clear: Schools, teachers, and students should NEVER be targets of war. School communities and infrastructures must be respected as safe sanctuaries, always.

Teachers and their unions must have a seat at the decision-making table. We all know, education policy development, without teachers at the heart of envisioning and developing it, is bound to fail. We also know the better a country’s education system performs, the more likely that country is working constructively with its unions and treating its teachers as trusted professional partners.

The challenges ahead are not easy. Teaching and learning are complex, with many variables that can never be reduced to a number or an equation.

Let’s be honest: too often, well-meaning ‘benchmarks’ and targets miss the mark. They focus on numbers but fail to address the harsh realities of overworked, under-resourced teachers. We appreciate the efforts to measure quality and performance, but we cannot reduce education to metrics. Professional autonomy—the freedom to teach in ways that we know work—is being chipped away by data-driven policies that do not capture classroom realities.

Students are not data points on a spreadsheet, and teachers are not robots delivering content. We are the heart of every public education system, which remains the most powerful tool for building more democratic, sustainable, inclusive, and just societies.

Today, we call on governments worldwide to act. It is imperative to fund public education, invest in teachers, guarantee their labor rights and ensure they have good working conditions. Let’s make it happen. Let’s work together—globally and locally—to make teaching a respected, well-paid, and aspirational profession for generations to come.

The future rests with our teachers. Stand with us. Advocate for increased public funding in public education. Let’s ensure that every student, everywhere, has access to well-supported qualified teachers and a quality learning environment, every day, every lesson.

Let’s Go Public and Fund Education now.