Members of EI’s affiliate, New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), are gathering at dawn on 5 October in Gisborne, the first place to see the sun, to celebrate World Teachers’ Day in the southern hemisphere.
Educators, support staff, community leaders, parents and students will come together at sunrise on Midway Beach to celebrate teachers and 'join EI's Unite for Quality Education campaign'
Additionally, many schools and centres around New Zealand will be involved in different activities including an opportunity to thank a teacher online.
Passing on stories of success
NZEI members will start a ‘journey’ to different places around the world through a tokotoko, a talking stick that symbolises the passing on of stories, knowledge and learning in the Maori culture.
The tokotoko(rakau korero) is a stick used by orators and can be passed from one speaker to another. NZEI has commissioned a tokotoko, known as Te Amokura, to represent the transmission of learning that is at the heart of quality public education.
The rakau has carvings on it representing Nga Hau e Wha(the four winds) peoples from the four corners of the earth as it will be travelling across the world. Therefore, it reinforces the message that sharing the values and successes of quality public education is critically important.
The tokotoko was handed to EI’s President, Susan Hopgood, at NZEI’s Annual Conference on 30 September, for her to bring to the launch of the global campaign, Unite for Education, to be held on 4 October in New York and Paris simultaneously.
Sharing successful practices
During EI’s year of action, the Te Amokura will be passed around different countries and events by education unions worldwide, before returning ultimately to Aotearoa, in New Zealand.
In addition, NZEI will promote, through its different communication channels, successful practices of quality teaching and learning, shared by educators across New Zealand.
To find out more about EI's Unite for Education Initiative, please click here