Editorial

More and better teachers needed

Achieving quality education for all

Eighteen million primary school teachers are needed over the next decade to meet Universal Primary Education (UPE) goals, says a recent report from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics. This is to fill the new posts needed and the vacancies created by attrition (teachers leaving existing posts).

Sub-Saharan Africa requires 1.6 million additional primary school teachers, by far the largest number of new posts that need to be created to reach UPE. Chad, for example, needs to increase its number from 16,000 to 61,000 and Ethiopia must more than double its teaching force.

Other regions also have critical challenges: 450,000 new teachers are required across the Arab States, and an additional 325,000 teachers in South and East Asia, primarily in Afghanistan. However, due to declining student populations, some countries such as China and India, need to reduce their teaching force whilst also improving teacher quality.

The recent publication Teachers Matter, focusing on teacher policy issues for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, argues that the quantity and quality of teachers are linked. It highlights how short-term responses to teacher shortages can ensure that every classroom has a teacher but raises concerns about the impacts on the quality of teaching and learning.

The International Labour Organization/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations Concerning Teaching Personnel met in October 2006 and made a number of recommendations including:

• the need for better teacher salaries and benefits
• more systematic teacher education
• attention to gender in teacher support and development.

To provide the quality education demanded by EFA targets and other international commitments, ministries of education — with support from external partners — need to ensure the following:

• effective planning processes to increase numbers of teachers in the right locations
• effective recruitment, training and deployment policies and ongoing support
• adequate financial resources to pay better salaries for good teachers.

Yet, as ActionAid highlights in a recent report, national fiscal policies based on budget cuts recommended by the International Monetary Fund may actually force ministries of education to reduce allocations for teacher salaries and support.

The issues involved are complex, and the solutions are far more than just about numbers. Teachers are men and women with their own identities, experiences and priorities through which their professional and personal concerns and needs are constructed. Yet research and policy studies about teachers tend to separate systems from individuals, especially in developing countries where less attention is given to teachers' lives and identities. Studies about teacher supply and demand and pre-service and in-service training are viewed separately from studies of teachers' classroom, family and community experiences. The gendered nature of teachers' lives and work, their experiences of living through violence and conflict, the role of teachers' unions in technical and contractual issues, are rarely considered.

Many teachers in conflict-affected, emergency or post-crisis situations may not originally have intended to enter the profession, but did so to respond to the needs of their communities or to the lack of other livelihood opportunities. This can mean that they lack formal teaching skills and have a fragile professional identity, but these teachers also bring other very positive qualities to the classroom, such as understanding the children's needs and a commitment to the community's future.

For teachers whose schools have been devastated by earthquakes or other natural disasters, the professional challenges of teaching in a tent or in the open air are matched by personal challenges of rebuilding their own homes and their families' livelihoods. Teachers in fragile states will have to deal with chronic under-funding, corruption and political interference, all of which impact heavily on their personal and professional lives. The vulnerabilities of women teachers — especially to sexual violence — are often overlooked.

Current critical teacher policy issues to address include:

• how to pay all teachers an adequate salary
• teacher training and support (how to promote quality education, especially with limited resources and under-qualified teachers)
• gender dynamics (how to recruit and support teachers in areas where the gender gap is large)
• how to address the impacts of HIV and AIDS (in terms of teacher management and effectiveness).

Number of primary school teachers needed to maintain existing numbers and to meet UPE goals between 2004 and 2015. Source: Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs for 2015, UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2006.
(Larger version)

This issue of id21 insights education looks at a range of issues affecting teachers and the kinds of support they need at local, national and international policy levels to help them fulfil their critical role in achieving education for all.

John Schwille's review of teacher development around the world demonstrates how teachers can be supported more effectively to create quality learning opportunities.

Teachers affected or infected by HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa especially, have to address personal issues concerning their status, health, financial and family security issues. They also need to meet the needs of learners whose families may be similarly affected. Doris Muhwezi Kakuru shows how the impact of HIV and AIDS in Uganda makes it difficult for teachers to promote gender equality and enable all pupils to learn effectively.

Teachers living and working in conflict areas also face difficult survival and security issues, especially where affiliation (to a trade union, religion or ethnic group, for example) may cast them on one particular 'side' of a political issue. Mario Novelli's research presents the chilling situation in Colombia where the murder of teachers has reached record levels because of their membership in the main teachers' union.

Dilshad Ashraf's research on the lives of female teachers in Pakistan reveals tensions between traditional family commitments and professional aspirations. Schools tend to cater more to men's needs and priorities, yet women try to find ways of negotiating traditional gender roles to engage in leadership roles. Women teachers need support from their families and their schools, as well as from local and central government if they are to participate fully in school life.

Martial Dembélé and M'hammed Mellouki show how the massive recruitment of contract teachers in West Africa is transforming the primary teaching force, with positive effects on gross enrolment ratios. But there are signs of negative effects on the attractiveness of the profession and on educational quality. Teacher absenteeism is another problem, raised by Halsey Rogers, that has a serious impact on the quality of education. Effective policy needs to consider why teachers are absent and what the barriers are to regular attendance.

In conclusion, in order to boost the potential of teachers to contribute effectively to EFA goals, national and international education policy needs to recognise two things:

• the importance of the 'private' lives of teachers
• the need to develop teacher-centred policies for the education sector and to take these into account in macro-economic and fiscal planning.

Jackie Kirk
McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, 3487 Peel Street, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1W7, Canada
T +1 514 2767412
F +1 514 2767849
jackie.kirk@mail.mcgill.ca

Martial Dembélé
Faculté des sciences de l'éducation, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succursale centre-ville, Local A-509, Montréal (Qc) H3C 3J7, Canada
T +1 514 3436546
F +1 514 3432497
martial.dembele@umontreal.ca

See also

Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs for 2015, Montreal: UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2006 (PDF) Link

Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, Final Report, Paris: OECD, 2005 (PDF) Link

Confronting the Contradictions: the IMF, Wage Bill Caps and the Case for Teachers, ActionAid, April 2007 (PDF) Link

'Promoting Quality Education in Refugee Contexts: Supporting Teacher Development in Northern Ethiopia', by Jackie Kirk and Rebecca Winthrop, in Quality Education in Africa: Challenges & Prospects, special issue of International Review of Education 53 (5-6), edited by Martial Dembélé and Joan Oviawe, forthcoming 2007

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Copyright remains with the original authors but (unless stated otherwise) any article may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided both source (id21, insights) and authors are properly acknowledged and informed. Copyright © 2006 id21. All rights reserved.