(Ottawa – October 2, 2020) October 5 is World Teachers’ Day and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) joins with teachers’ associations and unions in Canada and around the world in celebrating it.  

This year’s theme — “Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future”, reflects the extraordinary efforts of teachers worldwide, from Kindergarten to Grade 12 and throughout post-secondary systems to ensure the health and safety of students and their education continuity during the global pandemic.

Through CAUT’s membership in Education International,  a Global Union Federation that represents organisations of teachers and other education employees, we are united in promoting the principle that quality education, funded publicly, should be available to every student in every country.

School closures are changing the nature of teaching and learning as well as the conditions of work, and as CAUT’s survey of stressors caused by COVID-19 on the academic workplace reveals, many teachers and staff have seen increased workloads while facing new technological and social challenges, including a greater need to provide support for both their families and their students.

Register to hear CAUT President Brenda Austin-Smith participate on a virtual panel on World Teachers Day  (7:50 p.m. CDT) to discuss the critical issue of teacher wellbeing in the context of the pandemic and the role of education unions in charting new, more sustainable approaches to ensuring teacher wellbeing.