Teacher: a status that determines the future
Message from the rector of Shakarim University Duman Orynbekov
Dear teachers!
Dear veterans of teaching work!
Colleagues!
This year, World Teachers Day has a special meaning.
Exactly 60 years ago, October 5 1966, the International Labor Organization and UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Teachers was adopted. It established international principles related to the status of a teacher, his rights and responsibilities, professional training and working conditions.
Today, six decades later, this document is being revised. The world in which a teacher works has become different. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence, migration, inclusion, social changes pose new challenges for schools and teachers. Therefore, the theme of World Teachers' Day 2026 is dedicated to the status of the profession and the role of the teacher in shaping our future.
And I think it is important to look at this big international conversation from our today's successful and boldly announced Shakarim Group.
The new school year has just picked up its rhythm. New students have arrived at Shakarim High School. Shakarim Higher College accepted its students. About 2,630 freshmen began their studies at Shakarim University.
Before us are three levels of education and thousands of young people of different ages.
But this long journey has one beginning - the Teacher.
It is at school that a person first learns to work independently, ask questions, defend his point of view, accept success and failure, and be responsible for what he has done. Here, an attitude towards work, knowledge, other people and oneself gradually develops.
In a few years, this student will enter the classroom of a college or university. We will see his knowledge, character, independence, ability to learn and work with others. And in many ways, this will be a continuation of the great work that began earlier.
Therefore, for me, the Shakarim Group is also an opportunity to see education as a long trajectory of human development.
Today’s student is our tomorrow’s student, specialist, researcher, parent, citizen. And at each next stage, what remains with him is what the Teacher once put into him.
That is why the conversation about the status of a teacher is much broader than professional recognition.
The status is determined by the scale of responsibility that society entrusts to the teacher.
Today this responsibility is especially great.
Knowledge has become available almost instantly. Artificial intelligence finds information in seconds, writes texts, performs calculations, and offers ready-made answers. The child grows up in an information environment that is changing faster than ever before.
Under these conditions, the teacher’s work becomes deeper.
He has to teach the child to understand what he reads, check information, see cause-and-effect relationships, formulate his own position, argue, make decisions and understand their consequences.
Time requires the Teacher to lead a person through the ever-increasing complexity of the world.
This means that the teacher himself is changing. He constantly updates knowledge, masters technology, understands the characteristics of the new generation, seeks new ways of working and at the same time maintains what has always been the basis of this profession: personal responsibility for the development of another person.
That is why, 60 years after the adoption of the historical Recommendation, the world is again discussing the status of the teacher, his professional autonomy, voice in decision-making, workload, working conditions and opportunities for continuous development. UNESCO links support for teachers with the quality of the education system itself.
For us, this question should also sound very specific.
What opportunities does a teacher receive for professional growth? Does he have time and space to develop? How much do we hear his professional opinion? How quickly does new knowledge and technology reach the classroom? To what extent does the school help a strong teacher become even stronger?
This is already the responsibility of the leaders of the education system.
Because the high status of the profession also depends on the place we ourselves assign to the teacher in the development of the school.
The experience of veterans of teaching is especially important here.
Each new generation comes at a different time, but the professional culture of teaching has been created over decades. It accumulates knowledge, methodology, exactingness, understanding of the child, the ability to see his capabilities and the experience of thousands of human destinies.
This continuity today acquires special value.
We talk a lot about new technologies, artificial intelligence, and new educational models. But behind the question about the future of education there will always be a more important question: who leads the child into this future?
The answer remains the same - the Teacher.
Sixty years ago, the international community established the basic principles of its professional status. Today, time makes us more deeply aware of the scale of his role.
Because in a few years, the current schoolchild will become a student. Then - a specialist. And then he himself will begin to make decisions, create, teach others, be responsible for his family, profession, society.
And the quality of this long journey largely begins with the person who once told him for the first time: think, search, try, be responsible for your choice.
Dear colleagues!
Congratulations on World Teachers Day!
I wish you health, professional strength, respect students and parents, the opportunity to develop yourself and see how your students grow with you.
And the highest appreciation of your work, may years later be the people in whom your knowledge, your exactingness and your faith in their capabilities continue.
With respect, Duman Orynbekov
