The Saeima will evaluate the President’s proposal to celebrate the International Teachers’ Day on October 5

The session will start at 10 a.m., and it will take place in the meeting hall of the Saeima commissions, as well as remotely in the format of a video conference. Representatives from the Office of the President, the Latvian Education and Science Employees’ Union (LIZDA), the Association of Latvian Education Managers and the Legal Office of the Saeima have been invited to it.

Currently, the law stipulates that Teachers’ Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of October.

This creates an unequal practice in celebrating this day and often also confusion for students and their parents about when to honor teachers, the President notes.

“In order to standardize the approach to the celebration of Teachers’ Day in Latvia and thus emphasize the prestige and importance of this profession, I invite you to set this day to be celebrated in accordance with the International Teachers’ Day on October 5,” it is written in the letter of the President to the Presidium of the Saeima.

In LIZDA’s assessment, “it would only be natural” to establish Teachers’ Day in Latvia together with the International Teachers’ Day proposed by UNESCO, taking into account that Latvia has been a member of UNESCO since 1992.

Since 1994, on the initiative of UNESCO, October 5 has been declared International Teacher’s Day, which is celebrated in honor of the recommendation of UNESCO and the International Labor Organization on the adoption of the status of teachers on October 5, 1966.