On the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, 5 October 1966, the Joint Committee of Experts (CEART), composed of independent experts appointed to monitor and promote the application of the 1966 and 1997 Recommendations on the status of teachers, strongly supports the theme chosen to commemorate World Teachers’ Day 2006: Quality Teachers for Quality Education.  The 1966 Recommendation is an international standard designed to highlight the importance of the role of the teaching profession in promoting education in its most basic dimensions. The Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, which was adopted by UNESCO in 1997, extends the application of international standards to higher education teaching staff. On this occasion, the CEART also underlines the role of teachers and researchers of higher education in ensuring quality education. Both of these standards establish good practice guidelines for almost all the key questions concerning teachers, from pre-primary to higher education.

Much has changed throughout the world since the 1960s, but as the Joint Committee said in 1988, one truth endures: the status of teachers depends on the status of education, just as the status of education depends on the status of teachers. Quality education for all cannot be achieved without a high professional standing, rigorous initial and continuing teacher education, good teaching and learning conditions, and engagement of teachers in education reform decisions through effective and institutionalized social dialogue. These are the core principles of the 1966 and 1997 Recommendations. They are the basic guideposts for the future of teaching, and they must apply to all teachers, in developed and developing countries alike.