Skip to main content
Event
  • 28.05.2025

World Summit on Teachers in Santiago de Chile

UNESCO and the Government of Chile are pleased to announce the World Summit on Teachers, to be held in Santiago de Chile.

Taking place on 28 and 29 August 2025, with a “Day Zero” on 27 August for socio-cultural activities, visits, and pre-accreditation, the Summit is organized in conjunction with the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee meeting.

Building on the recent global events and reports that forged a global consensus on the need to invest in dignifying the teaching profession, the Summit aims to address the global challenge of teacher shortages and to advocate for sustained support for teachers in a challenging economic and socio-political context.

It will bring together ministers, teacher representatives, international organizations and key education stakeholders for high-level dialogue on teacher policies, financing, innovation and inclusion.

Official invitations to ministries will follow shortly.

More information will be available here soon.

Contact: 2025teachersummit@unesco.org

Event
  • 28.05.2025

World Summit on Teachers in Santiago de Chile

UNESCO and the Government of Chile are pleased to announce the World Summit on Teachers, to be held in Santiago de Chile.

Taking place on 28 and 29 August 2025, with a “Day Zero” on 27 August for socio-cultural activities, visits, and pre-accreditation, the Summit is organized in conjunction with the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee meeting.

Building on the recent global events and reports that forged a global consensus on the need to invest in dignifying the teaching profession, the Summit aims to address the global challenge of teacher shortages and to advocate for sustained support for teachers in a challenging economic and socio-political context.

It will bring together ministers, teacher representatives, international organizations and key education stakeholders for high-level dialogue on teacher policies, financing, innovation and inclusion.

Official invitations to ministries will follow shortly.

More information will be available here soon.

Contact: 2025teachersummit@unesco.org

Blog
  • 22.05.2025

Leading without limits: Teachers with disabilities driving inclusive education

The Global Disability Summit 2025 took place on 2–3 April in Berlin, convening more than 4,000 participants including governments, organizations, advocates and individuals to advance disability rights and promote inclusive development. In the lead-up to the Summit, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 launched an advocacy campaign titled “Teachers with disabilities: Voices we must hear, leaders we must follow” to ensure that the experiences and leadership of teachers with disabilities were part of this global conversation.

Led by the Teacher Task Force’s thematic group on Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices - co-chaired by VSO and the International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET) - the campaign aimed to amplify the lived experiences and leadership of teachers with disabilities, whose insights are too often absent from education discourse and policy. Through interviews, blog posts and social media features, the campaign shared personal stories and calls to action from educators across the globe.

Looking back, the campaign not only highlighted the persistent barriers these teachers face but also showcased the vital leadership they bring to building inclusive, resilient education systems for all.
 

Teacher voices at the forefront of inclusion and change

This multi-week campaign underscored the essential role teachers with disabilities play in advancing inclusive education. It featured personal testimonies, advocacy messages and spotlights on educators who teach, lead and innovate - often while navigating significant obstacles.

Over the course of two weeks, the campaign spotlighted nine remarkable educators with disabilities from across Africa and Asia, each demonstrating that inclusive education begins with inclusive teaching workforces. From Malawi, Esther Mbite, a blind primary school teacher, shared how her classroom innovations break down barriers to excellence, while Chipulikano Balekire Ngulube, a rural teacher with a mobility impairment, championed inclusive pedagogy. Esterr Viko, also from Malawi, emphasized the need for accessible learning materials as a teacher with an upper body impairment. In South Africa, Qaphelani Dlamini, a wheelchair user with spina bifida, spoke about his dual role as an educator of learners with physical disabilities and an advocate for inclusive teacher training, while Ingrid Parkin, a deaf teacher, highlighted the importance of language and culture in her work at a school for deaf learners.

From Nepal, Shankar Upadyaya and Shrikanta Sapkota, both with severe visual impairments, described how they use assistive technology and champion disability-inclusive curricula in their classrooms. Loknath Gautam, a deaf teacher in Nepal, advocated for integrating sign language training into formal teacher education programmes. Finally, Paul Longoli from Uganda, a teacher with a mobility impairment, showed how leadership and mentorship can challenge perceptions of disability and inspire change in education systems. Together, their stories reflect the strength, diversity and determination of teachers with disabilities driving inclusive education forward.

As part of the campaign, Dr Heike Kuhn, Co-Chair of the Teacher Task Force and Head of the Education Division at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), contributed a blog post reflecting on the importance of empowering teachers with disabilities and placing their voices at the centre of education reform. In it, she underscored the value of their lived experience in shaping education:

“Teachers with disabilities are not just role models - they are essential to building inclusive and resilient education systems.”
 

Breaking barriers, together: the power of dialogue in inclusive education

The campaign culminated in a panel titled “Transforming Classrooms: The Power of Teachers with Disabilities in Inclusive Education”, hosted by Perkins School for the Blind at the Summit’s Inclusive Education Hub. Moderated by Dr Heike Kuhn, the session brought together teachers from Uganda, Malawi, Nepal, Rwanda and South Africa.

In powerful personal testimonies, educators spoke about the systemic challenges they face - such as inaccessible training, discriminatory attitudes and infrastructure barriers - as well as the creative, inclusive strategies they have developed in response. Their collective message was unequivocal: there is no inclusive education without inclusive teaching workforces.

Key takeaways from the panel included:

  1. Teachers with disabilities must have the chance to actively participate in shaping education policy   
  2. Inclusion must extend beyond students to include the educators who serve them
  3. Disability inclusion is a right - not a favour
     
Inclusion
​Dr Heike Kuhn moderates the panel session spotlighting the voices of teachers with disabilities
 

Inclusion begins with teachers

The campaign served as both a call to action and a source of inspiration. It reminded policymakers, donors and education leaders that investing in teachers with disabilities is not only a matter of justice - it’s a path to quality, innovation and resilience. The stories we shared delivered a clear message: recognising teachers with disabilities as leaders, not just as beneficiaries of inclusion, is essential. True inclusion must extend beyond students to embrace those who teach them, and disability inclusion must be understood not only as a right, but as a powerful force for building stronger, more resilient education systems.

The Global Disability Summit concluded with renewed commitments to disability inclusion, including the Amman-Berlin Declaration, which urges that at least 15% of international development programming at the country level explicitly pursue disability inclusion.
 

From inclusion to leadership

The Teacher Task Force will continue to advocate for inclusive teacher policies and support its members in driving systemic change, including through the thematic group on Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices. With the world facing a projected shortfall of 44 million teachers - according to the UNESCO and the Teacher Task Force 2024 Global Report on Teachers - it is more urgent than ever to ensure that teachers with disabilities are not only included but empowered to lead.

Now is the time to act. We must:

  1. Ensure teacher education is accessible and inclusive for all
  2. Provide ongoing professional development and assistive technologies to support teachers with disabilities
  3. Recruit and promote teachers with disabilities as part of national strategies to address the global teacher shortage
  4. Include their voices in education policy dialogue and decision-making

Inclusive education starts with inclusive teaching. Let’s keep listening, investing - and above all - following the leadership of teachers with disabilities. 
 

Useful links

 

Photo credits: VSO 

Event
  • 07.11.2024

Amplifying Teachers' Voices: Transforming Education through Stories, Research, and Practice

Carlos Vargas, Head of the Teacher Task Force Secretariat, will participate in the webinar "Amplifying Teachers' Voices," organized by the Jacobs Foundation on 18 November at 3:00 pm CET.

Hosted by Nina Alonso, an international educational researcher specializing in equal access to learning and culture, this teacher-led, global event will spotlight teachers' stories, elevate the teaching profession’s status, and foster dialogue between educators and key stakeholders in teacher development.

The event will also introduce the new Teachers' Voices online repository—a resource of teacher stories and educational research designed to support teachers and educational stakeholders worldwide.

For further information and to register, please click here.

Brochure / Flyer
  • pdf
  • 01.10.2024

World Teachers' Day 2024 Factsheet

Target 4.c. of the SDGs states that “By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries...
Event
  • 14.08.2024

Webinar: Social Dialogues for Teachers: Amplifying the voice of the teacher to inform and achieve quality educational reforms in Africa

A virtual discussion on Social Dialogues for Teachers: Amplifying the voice of the teacher to inform and achieve quality educational reforms in Africa will be to be held on Thursday, 22nd August 2024, from 3:00– 5:00 p.m. East Africa Time (UTC +3); see below for your calculated time zone.

The webinar is being jointly organized by the GPE KIX Africa 19 Hub, the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA), and the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA).

This webinar is the third in a current series on teachers’ empowerment in Africa and follows the first webinar on The influence of school leadership and governance on teachers’ mental health and wellbeing in Africa (see recording here) and the second webinar on Quality assurance in teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa: Enhancing the quality of teacher training programs for a competent teaching workforce in Africa (see recording here). 

The webinar is intended to be of interest to ministries of education, local education groups, teacher councils and unions, teacher colleagues, teaching communities of practices, AUC Teacher Cluster members, pre-service and in-service teachers, and all those who are interested in supporting teachers and strengthening the teaching profession in Africa.

For more information on the webinar please click here.

To register please click here. The passcode to join is 890045.

 

Image credit: UNESCO/Kilayé Bationo