Last modified 09/12/2023

World Teachers’ Day information :

A teacher educates children, teenagers and young adults, and is thus related to society´s development. There have been great teachers in many countries around the world, and they allowed a date to be set up to honor and acknowledge them: Teachers Day.

A human being’s earliest memories are linked to teachers. Can anybody raise their hands and say they do not remember any of their teachers? Who has forgotten the name of the person who taught them the wonder of reading, the value of numbers or the beauty in a drawing? .

Perhaps we have forgotten that 40 years ago teachers were considered our second parents because school had become our second home. That is why we want to highlight how the Americas celebrate Teachers Day.

In Argentina, the greatest educator was Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who even became president. He was born on February 15, 1811 and died on September 11, 1888. Such was his contribution to education, that he was declared “Teacher of Teachers” by education secretaries, directors of educational institutions and well-know educators that assembled in the Interamerican Conference on Education, held in Panama City in 1943. They also agreed to set September 11 every year as the Pan-American Teachers Day, and it still is celebrated in Argentina.

Bolivia chose June 6 every year to celebrate its teachers. On that date in 1840 Modesto Omiste Tinajeros, it greatest teacher, was born; and in 1909 Bolivia’s first Teachers School was founded. Brazil, so far away in distance and language, remembers its teachers every October 13. That date was set up in honor of the creation of elementary schools by Emperor Peter I with a law he signed on that date.

Colombia celebrates its teachers on May 15, because on that date Pope Pius XII declared Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle as patron of teachers. Chile has chosen October 16, when Teachers School was founded.

Ecuador decided to celebrate its teachers on April 13 every year. On that date in 1832, Ecuadorian writer Juan María Montalvo Fiallos was born. He died on January 17, 1889. Paraguay feasts its teachers on April 30 every year, as agreed on a Teachers Congress held in 1915. Peru has set teachers day on July 6 every year, because the first teacher’s college for male students was founded on that date.

Uruguay celebrates on September 22. Venezuela celebrates on January 15, remembering the foundation of Primary Education Teachers Society.
Finally, UNESCO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have recommended that on October 5 every year the world teachers’ role in the search for a better quality education, despite the inadequate conditions they work in, be acknowledged.

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net