Rabat (UNA-OIC) – In observance of World Teacher’s Day, held this year under the theme “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future”, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) reaffirmed that education, which endorses creativity and leadership and foresees changes, especially relating to AI, is the foundation of comprehensive human development.
ICESCO stressed that facing challenges and crises, making history, and shaping the future are impactful contributions that can only be achieved through strong, advanced education systems where teachers are accorded due importance. Professionally trained and motivated teachers are more likely to better assume their key role in shaping the school of tomorrow.
Against this backdrop, the Organization underlined the need to capitalize on the cumulative experiences and the lessons learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It added that this pandemic brought about a plethora of challenges and issues that tested the resilience of the education systems in most countries as they attempted to find an alternative learning environment to replace face-to-face classes.
The pandemic took by storm the education systems and swiftly ushered them into a new phase. It also compelled education officials to embark on new experiences and craft digital educational initiatives. The entirety of the educational corps had to navigate an uncertain situation without proper equipment, including meticulous planning, adequate technological and digital infrastructure, and teachers qualified to work on virtual platforms.
Since the digital school and distance education have become the core of our new reality and the course of our daily life in the post-COVID-19 world, with its new milestones, all countries and peoples of the world are required to be more prepared to achieve the necessary shift from the traditional school to the digital school of the future. The new school promises broader prospects and better results and outputs to achieve the various aims of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) of the UN 2030 Agenda: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
The goal demands accelerated structural reform of educational plans, teacher training institutions, educational curricula and programs, and working mechanisms. The next stage will witness a stronger presence of AI and its products.
Amid the transformations witnessed in the education sector, ICESCO calls for intensifying efforts and mobilizing the necessary resources to prevent distance education from turning divisive which increases disparities between learners in the Islamic world.
Nearly 20 percent of school-age children are out of school, and equality between male and female students in both urban and rural settings remains much to be desired. ICESCO also calls on parents to back the efforts of teachers and ensure more involvement in the educational process and to provide a home environment incubating the values of self-learning, sustainable education, creativity, and leadership. The measures benefit children, especially in the early stages of education.
The Organization recommends developing teacher training programs in the Islamic world countries, incorporating digital and technological training in those programs, reforming teacher training institutions, and learning from the experiences of successful countries in the field of teacher training. it also recommends focusing on training programs on societal issues to enhance teachers’ roles in entrenching the values of tolerance, openness and peaceful coexistence, dialogue, respect for the Other, and the promotion of the principles of middle stance, moderation, understanding and rapprochement between peoples.
ICESCO affirms that the teacher will remain a fundamental pillar in the educational process, and modern educational applications will not reduce his value and position in society, regardless of circumstances.
Held annually on 5 October since 1994, World Teachers’ Day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world.
