UNESCO launched the first World Teachers’ Day at the beginning of the 1990s, with the contribution of many countries to draw governments’ attention to the deteriorating working conditions of women and men in education in urban and rural settings. Without men and women in education, it is impossible for education to perform its role properly, because teaching is not only about imparting knowledge to students, but it is about motivating them to be creative and realize their dreams for a better world.
This noble educational mission requires qualified and experienced teachers. The slogan chosen by UNESCO for this year 2024 is: “Valuing teachers’ voices…towards a new decade for education.”
Celebrating World School Day is a day to recognize the efforts of the bearers of the noble message in order to build generations and the prosperity and renaissance of the country and the graduation of an important number of distinguished national figures who occupy many positions. We will not give them their full right to leadership in the country.
This year’s slogan has more than one importance and significance. We need teachers with educational and psychological training to enable them to lead classroom activity safely and encourage them to adhere to the values of equality, peace, tolerance, rejection of violence and dialogue. Teachers constitute the basic pillar of the educational system. We hope that the current school season will begin. In the right direction, and the return to school will witness the reactivation of the educational reform engine, led by representatives of women and men of education and the guardian ministry, so that a positive message can be given that serves as a beacon of hope for building an educational system that responds to the features of the conditions of the new Morocco and in parallel with the outstanding union files.
There are many challenges that impose themselves, including the readiness of the infrastructure in many schools adjacent to the valleys, the problem of contractors, and the great shortage of human resources.
With the start of the current school season, many educational institutions are complaining of a major shortage in human resources. In many educational institutions, the director and a general guard are responsible for managing the affairs of the institution, whose number of students exceeds a thousand…and these educational ills are no longer hidden from far and wide..
On the occasion of the celebration of International Teachers’ Day, parents of male and female students are anticipating the developments of this school season and are wondering many questions, foremost of which is: Will this new school season be another episode of tension between the ministry and the most representative unions? Will the problems be contained between the negotiating parties, indicating that the escalation hypothesis has been overcome? And the success of the current school season as a whole…investing in teachers and in the education sector as a whole is the key. Any educational system will not be characterized by quality unless it has experienced, qualified, and adequately trained teachers, and not in a period not exceeding three or four days as it is currently.
On the occasion of the celebration of World Teachers’ Day, we feel the need for a democratic school that is open to the opinions and observations of male and female students and their parents and to study them with care and focus because this would help improve the educational system for the better.
We also need a teacher who influences educational outcomes and is an effective, reliable element in school development and improvement processes.
Given the richness of educational developments and the speed of their development at the current stage, it has become necessary for the teacher to be familiar with all educational developments. We also need competent, qualified managers who are open to everything new in the field of educational administration management as well as projects, and who believe in adopting a participatory approach with the educational team, the parents’ association, and civil society, instead of being confined inside offices and among endless memos.
We need diligent and creative pedagogical leaders who are not shackled by top-down decisions.
We need an inclusive national school in the true sense of the word, in which teachers work as one harmonious and harmonious team that discusses topical issues that serve the interests of students in particular.
We no longer have the right to waste time and prepare strategies and studies that have depleted the state budget. The current situation requires creative, long-term solutions away from improvisation, sterile verbal speeches, and the corridors of bureaucracy and exaggerated centralization.
Teachers are the pivotal pillar of the educational learning process and the vital elements capable of achieving the desired educational aspirations and goals. Teachers remain in dire need of consideration of their issues and the challenges and difficulties they face. Therefore, the authorities responsible for managing educational affairs must listen to the demands of women and men in education and to your new suggestions instead of making unilateral decisions within the corridors of offices or dictated by external parties.
Congratulations to the women and men of education on this day. We hope that it will be a good omen for our country and for the education sector in particular.
Khalil Al-Bukhari… Educational researcher
