OSSTF/FEESO Celebrates World Teachers' Day on October 5 and Calls for Greater Investment in Public Education

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 3, 2014) - World Teachers' Day is celebrated every year on October 5. A UNESCO initiative, it's a day on which we recognize the crucial role that the teaching profession plays in the life of any healthy society.

The theme for World Teachers' Day 2014 is "Invest in the Future, Invest in Teachers." It is a message that could not be more pertinent in a political environment where teachers and other education workers have found themselves the target of austerity and cutbacks, rather than investment, in recent years.

"We have always insisted that enhanced investment in public education is the key to a prosperous future in Ontario," said Paul Elliott, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF/FEESO). "Teachers and other education workers dedicate their time and energy to providing students with the knowledge, skills, confidence and sense of community they will need to succeed," continued Elliott. "Every day they lay the foundations for the thriving and dynamic society we envision for Ontario's future."

"This is no time for continued austerity when it comes to public education," Elliott concluded. "It's time instead to recognize that greater investment in public education, investment in students, really is an investment in the future. It's the kind of investment that reaps tangible returns for years to come."

OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.