World Teacher’s Day in Indonesia “Guru: Memimpin dalam Krisis, Menata Masa Depan Pendidikan Indonesia”
World Teachers’ Day is celebrated annually on 5 October to commemorate the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. On 8 October 2020, UNESCO, through the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture held a celebration of the World Teacher’s Day with the theme “Guru: Memimpin dalam Krisis, Menata Masa Depan Pendidikan Indonesia” or “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future on Education in Indonesia”. This theme is adapted from the theme of the 2020 World Teachers’ Day “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the Future”.
In his opening remarks, Prof Shahbaz Khan, Director and Representative of UNESCO Office Jakarta, shared the theme of the 2020 World Teachers Day was chosen considering the COVID-19 crisis, which created a unique situation for teachers’ leadership, creativity and innovation. Globally, the issue of teacher leadership in relation to crisis responses is not just timely, but critical in terms of the contributions teachers have made to provide remote learning, support vulnerable populations, re-open schools, and ensure that learning gaps have been mitigated.
The Minister of Education and Culture Republic Indonesia, H.E. Nadiem Makarim, highlighted the very noble role of teachers in ensuring that the learning process is continued as well as supporting mental health and well-being of their students. Further, he mentioned that the government will continue to invest in teachers through recruitment policies, education policies, increasing professionalism, and improving teacher welfare in order to improve the education in Indonesia.
Participated by thousands of teachers across Indonesia through Zoom platform and the Youtube channel of Ministry of Education and Culture, the celebration of the 2020 World Teachers Day globally aimed at drawing attention to the issue of education leadership and how teachers, head teachers, principals, and others play important roles and inviting the education stakeholders to reflect on what teacher leadership means in the context of Education 2030.