Session on teachers at the Right to Education Symposium

A dedicated session on teachers will take place on 9 December 2025 as part of the International Symposium on the Future of the Right to Education at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Entitled "Teachers, educators and the right to education: expanding boundaries", the session will explore how teachers’ rights and working conditions are fundamental to realising the right to education.

The session will feature contributions from Teacher Task Force members, including representatives of the International Labour Organization, the Ministry of Education of Oman, and Education International, offering insights from labour, government and union perspectives.

Drawing on evidence from the Global Report on Teachers (UNESCO & TTF, 2024) and the Santiago Consensus, the session will address the global teacher shortage - 44 million teachers needed by 2030 - and the structural issues driving attrition, such as poor working conditions, limited autonomy and insufficient professional development. It will examine how teachers’ professional rights, from fair pay to agency and lifelong learning, form an integral part of the broader right to education, particularly in light of UNESCO’s ongoing revision of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation and the 1997 Recommendation on Higher Education Teaching Personnel.

The programme will begin with scene-setting inputs based on global evidence, followed by a panel discussion bringing together TTF member representatives and other experts from governments, unions and academia. An interactive dialogue will invite participants to reflect on priorities and actions for strengthening teacher rights, before the session closes with key messages to inform the symposium’s wider recommendations.

The discussion will contribute to shaping future directions for reinforcing teacher-related dimensions of the right to education within global normative frameworks.

Click here for more information about the event.