Education sector

The ILO supports international education goals through numerous decent work strategies, including combatting child labour, promoting social dialogue and freedom of association, and developing skills and employability strategies. The ILO also supports the key people who deliver education: teachers. Together with UNESCO, the ILO promotes principles of quality teaching through two Recommendations concerning teaching personnel, as well as the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel.

What's new

  1. World Day Against Child Labour

    To bring social justice to all we must end child labour

    12 June 2023

  2. Press release

    Development cooperation between ILO and Saudi Arabia enters new phase

    08 June 2023

  3. Press release

    Governor of West Java supports ILO’s financial inclusion and SMEs development

    06 June 2023

Highlights

  1. Sectoral meeting

    Technical meeting on the future of work in the education sector

    17-21 May 2021

  2. ILO/GIZ Projects

  3. COVID-19

    Supporting teachers in back-to-school efforts - Guidance for policy-makers

    This document provides guidance to policy-makers on measures to support teachers and education staff when schools reopen, during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

  4. CEART

    13th Session of the Joint ILO–UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART)

    Geneva, 1-5 October 2018

  1. Early Childhood Education

    Casablanca Declaration and Call for Action on Quality Early Childhood Education and the Professionalization of ECE Teachers and Educators

    Text adopted at the African Conference on Quality Early Childhood Education and the Professionalization of Educators (Casablanca, Morocco, 2-5 December 2019), organized by the ILO, UNESCO and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco.

  2. Sectoral Meeting

    Global Dialogue Forum on Employment Terms and Conditions in Tertiary Education

    Geneva, 18-20 September 2018

Standards and tools

  1. ILO Policy Guidelines on the promotion of decent work for early childhood education personnel (2014)
  2. Handbook of good human resource practices in the teaching profession (2012)
  3. An HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy for the Education Sector in the Caribbean (2011)
  4. An HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy for the Education Sector in Southern Africa (2006)
  5. Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (1966 and 1997)
National labour legislation (NATLEX database)
  1. National legislation dealing with teachers
Resource guide
  1. Resource guide on the education sector

Publications

  1. Teaching and the teaching profession in a digital world - Kenya

    05 May 2023

  2. Teaching and the teaching profession in a digital world - Rwanda

    05 May 2023

  3. Teaching and the teaching profession in a digital world - Zambia

    05 May 2023

  4. Guidelines for employment diagnostics in times of continuous change

    08 March 2023

  5. ILO care policy investment simulator: Technical note

    07 March 2023