World Teachers’ Day is observed on October 5. Sixty years ago, the International Labor Organization and UNESCO adopted a joint recommendation setting international standards for the teaching profession. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Science and Education, Pavel Tereshkovich, comments on the occasion:
“This day is also marked in Belarus — with solemn speeches, flowers, and some peculiarities of its own: not on the 5th, but on the 4th. There is a certain logic to this: supposedly, the first Sunday of October already reserved for the occasion should be enough for a celebration.
But does the position of teachers actually meet the very standards that the Belarusian delegation at the UN also signed up to 60 years ago? Under the principle of academic freedom, teachers should have the right to professional autonomy — to choose teaching materials, textbooks, and teaching methods independently. Have you heard of such a thing? Or take another principle — non-discrimination: access to the teaching profession and working conditions should be completely free from restrictions based on race, sex, religion, or political views. Is a lifetime ban on the teaching profession for people convicted under so-called “extremism-related articles” consistent with this recommendation? Two teachers were added to the blacklist in September alone.
According to which UNESCO recommendations are schools in Belarus being so persistently turned into barracks? With all these mandatory military field exercises and militarized games from primary school through university, not to mention the meeting of the teaching section of the national pedagogical conference on pre-conscription training held at Military Unit 5448 of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — a unit described as “exemplary” in dispersing peaceful protesters and escorting convicted prisoners.
Individual inspections of students’ personal belongings introduced at the start of the school year make schools resemble not only barracks but also juvenile correctional facilities.
I can only sympathize with those colleagues who continue to fulfill their professional duty despite the system. Stay strong! It is well known that the forces of evil are strongest just before dawn. And when the sun shines through our window, we will make Teacher’s Day a true celebration”.
