Today the global community celebrates the teaching profession. This year's theme is Recasting the Teaching Profession as a Collaborative Effort, with a focus on strengthening teaching, learning, and professional fulfilment through collaborative structures. World Teachers day is celebrated annually since 1994. It commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of teachers, setting  benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning. It is convened in partnership with UNESCO, ILO, UNICEF and Education International.

This overarching theme emphasizes a shift towards reframing teaching as a collaborative effort, moving away from professional isolation. The concept of collaborative teaching has been in place in Malta for several years although it is not so widespread owing to several factors. Rigid syllabi and excessive content hinders the collaborative approach as it does not provide sufficient time to dedicate to shared teaching. However there are several good examples. There are practices of shared teaching involving thematic approaches whereby cross-subject (curricular) themes are discussed and agreed upon at school level with lessons focussing on themes in a transversal collaborative approach.  Certainly, the extensive work involving teachers or kingergarten educators with learning support educators are very good examples of collaborative teaching.

The element of professional isolation is also being reshaped. The education profession recognises the need to work with other professions as teaching is only one aspect of the growth of children. The Family-Community- School link programme introduced recently in our educational system is a good example, which links the education profession with other professions that provide for the needs of families and children. This approach is helping several families and students in their education by seeing to their needs outside schools, but which invariably affect schooling.

A collaborative approach is also in place in professional development and training opportunities for educators offered by the University of Malta, the Institute for Education and the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology. Educators following courses in these institutions are provided with ample opportunities to work collaboratively in their studies and in their practice in schools. The emphasis on this approach is also essential for initial teaching training due to the youth who follow training more inclined to work in isolation rather than in a collaborative group, owing mainly to the exposure of technologies which do not promote collaboration. 

Policy development, implementation and evaluation is also being reshaped owing to this collaborative approach. Recent policies are also formulated in collaboration with many stakeholders and adopt an inter-ministerial model for the development and implementation. The aim is to develop inclusive policies and practices that value mutual support, shared expertise, and joint responsibility within the education system. This is applicable also to the sharing of resources in policy making as resources may be available to one ministry but not to another and such collaboration maximises the use of resources and the outcomes. Resources available at European level and in other countries are also being sought through collaboration with several agencies and entities as they enrich the local expertise and give an added value to the educational provision.

On behalf of officials and the Council of the MUT, I would like to thank all educators for the extensive work being carried out for the benefit of students whilst wishing them a happy World Teachers' Day!