[hr-education] World Teachers Day: Support teachers for rights-based schools

Statement by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights on the
occasion of World Teachers Day

5th October 2006 

On World Teachers' Day, we need to think of ways to support teachers
across the Council of Europe region in creating rights-based schools.
Governments must listen to teachers more and provide them with more
support.

The school environment is a crucially important location for learning
about and practicing human rights from an early age. It is a place where
all children are given the same opportunity to develop respect for human
rights. As the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states, the
purpose of education is ultimately to prepare the child for a "responsible
life in a free society, in the sprit of understanding, peace, tolerance,
equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and
religious groups and persons of indigenous origin" as well as "respect for
the natural environment".

The theme of this year's World Teachers' Day is "Quality Teachers for
Quality Education". We cannot emphasize enough how much the qualification
of teachers and educators is key -- and not only when it comes to teaching
our children how to read, write and calculate. Teachers are also primary
human rights defenders, and what's more: key actors for the success of
human rights education. Teachers have an essential role in preparing
children to assume an active and participatory democratic citizenship.

Human rights values should not only be taught as a separate subject but
should permeate the whole education system. Teachers should not only teach
about democracy but also act in that spirit, giving students a practical
understanding -- as well experience -- about democratic customs and
behaviour. Each child should be given the opportunity to learn in a
democratic atmosphere and to be heard and have his or her opinions taken
seriously.

Teacher skills, attitudes and motivation are therefore crucially important
for human rights education. The necessary preparation should be given
through pre-service teacher education, focusing on both academic knowledge
about the taught subjects and teaching methods needed to create a
child-centred, inclusive learning environment. In addition, in our
fast-changing world, teachers must be engaged in life-long learning to be
able to meet new challenges.

It is a grave political contradiction that so much emphasis is being given
to the importance of education while so little is being done to give
teachers status, support and reward. Their advice is too often ignored or
not even asked for when decisions are taken about education policy. The
professional status of teachers should be recognised as one of the most
important in society.

Governments have endorsed numerous international conventions and
recommendations emphasising the importance of human rights education. At
the end of the day, however, it is the teacher community which has to work
on the practical level, and turn the principle ideas into reality. It is
vital therefore that teachers are involved in the process from the
beginning, or there is a risk that the high ambitions will stay on the
level of rhetoric, leading to few changes at the school level.

It is the responsibility of policy-makers and school management to support
and empower the teachers in this important role, and to work toward
raising their professional status.





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