Standing with Teachers, Shaping Our Future
Communist Party of Swaziland honours World Teachers’ Day
5 October 2026
World Teachers’ Day 2026 provides an important opportunity to recognise and honour the vital role teachers play in society. This year marks 60 years since UNESCO and the International Labour Organization adopted the 1966 Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, establishing an important international commitment to protecting teachers’ rights, dignity and working conditions.
Under the theme, “Standing with Teachers: 60 Years of Protecting the Profession, Advancing its Status and Shaping Our Futures,” we are reminded that teachers are not simply educators. They are mentors, counsellors, community leaders and role models who shape the lives and futures of generations.
Every day, teachers enter classrooms confronting challenges that extend far beyond delivering lessons. Overcrowded classrooms, inadequate resources, excessive administrative burdens and growing pressures on learners are becoming the daily reality of the profession. Yet teachers continue to serve their communities, often carrying the burden of poverty, hunger, family difficulties and social distress on their shoulders.
But celebrating teachers must go beyond empty words and ceremonial recognition. Standing with teachers means fighting for decent salaries, safe working environments, manageable workloads, professional development and genuine participation in decisions affecting education. Teachers must not be treated as disposable labour within a system that demands more while giving less.
The CPS affirms that teachers have the fundamental right to organise, form and strengthen trade unions, elect and defend their leaders, bargain collectively and take collective action in defence of their profession and their livelihoods. Teachers must organise not only in their union SNAT, but also in schools and communities, building democratic structures of solidarity and collective action. Through organised teachers and united communities, People’s Power can be built and mobilised to defend the teaching profession, protect public education and resist every attempt to undermine teachers’ rights and dignity.
A strong education system cannot exist without respected, organised and empowered teachers. When teachers are valued and organised, learners benefit. When educators stand together and communities stand with them, schools become centres of knowledge, dignity, resistance and social empowerment.
On this World Teachers’ Day, we salute every teacher who continues to educate, inspire and guide our children despite immense pressures. We recognise their sacrifices, their courage and their indispensable contribution to society.
The CPS calls on teachers to organise, unite and defend their profession; to strengthen SNAT and support their elected leaders; to build solidarity among educators, learners, parents and communities; and to stand together against every attack on workers’ rights and public education. We call on communities to stand firmly with teachers and join the struggle for properly resourced schools, decent working conditions and quality public education.
Let us build People’s Power from our schools and communities and turn teachers’ collective strength into organised action. An injury to one teacher is an injury to all; an attack on public education is an attack on the future of our society.
Let us move beyond appreciation to organisation, solidarity and action. Stand with teachers. Defend the profession. Defend public education. Build People’s Power.
Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland
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