Africa

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  • 18.04.2018

Togo develops national Teacher Policy

Following the adoption of the Education 2030 agenda, putting teachers at the centre of the right to quality education, the Government of Togo set out to develop a comprehensive national teacher policy. The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 is called upon to support countries requesting technical assistance on teachers and teaching. It is in this context that the Teacher Task Force responded to Togo’s demand for technical assistance in developing their national teacher policy, through the use of the Teacher Policy Development Guide.

Why was a policy needed?

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the population of primary school age children was 1 180 321 in 2015 but the number of teachers in primary education was only 33 900. Out of this number, only 32.6% of primary education teachers were qualified according to national standards and the pupil-teacher ratio was 41 to 1 for this level. Togo had resorted to the use of “contract teachers” in the 90’s and is now aiming to endow its educational system with a stronger teaching force.

Development process

In order to facilitate the implementation and achievement of equitable access to a quality education, Togo developed a national teacher policy encompassing all levels of and facets of the teaching profession. This policy was developed concurrently with the revision of Togo’s Education Sector plan with the objective of integrating it into the revised sector plan.

Togo’s national teacher policy aims to propose measures to improve teachers’ working conditions and motivation.

A national multisectorial technical team was put in place involving the different education stakeholders in the country: ministries representatives, parents’ associations’ representatives as well as teacher unions’ representatives and representatives from the education sector. The technical team was placed under the overall authority of a ministerial committee. Their task was to develop the national teacher policy following the approach proposed by the Task Force’ Teacher Policy Development Guide.

Togo’s national teacher policy was built around three main lines: teachers’ efficiency, motivation and professionalization. Each main line covers a set of the dimensions described in the Teacher Policy development Guide. During its development, the national technical team decided to add a tenth dimension on the participation of teachers to social dialogue.

The concept of efficiency as defined in Togo’s teacher policy is linked to teachers’ competencies and performance. More particularly, it deals with professional standards, qualification frameworks as well as recruitment, deployment and retention strategies.

Regarding motivation, the focus is on defining structured career pathways, improving teachers’ working conditions, defining remuneration standards in line with the remuneration of professions of equal qualifications and responsibilities in the country, and increasing school governance role in monitoring and following up teachers’ good performance.

In terms of professionalization, the policy looks at teachers’ accountability through performance: self-evaluation,peer evaluation and evaluation of learning outcomes It also elaborates proposals to improve teachers’ representation and participation in social dialogue.

What’s next?

National authorities will review the policy document produced by the technical team for formal adoption. The most important phase will be the implementation of the national teacher policy. Continuous engagement with stakeholders, adequate mobilization of financial resources, the creation of the implementation and monitoring structures and reliance on accurate and reliable qualitative and quantitative data on teachers will help Togo in its efforts to achieve national educational goals and the SDG 4 Teacher target. The Teacher Task Force will remain a key partner in this process.

 

Photo credit: Jordan Rowland/Unsplash

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News
  • 17.04.2018

Madagascar adopts national Teacher Policy

The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (TTF), as stated in its mission and as one of the specific objectives of its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, is called upon to support countries requesting technical assistance on teachers and teaching. It is in this context that the TTF supported Madagascar in developing its national teacher policy through the use of the Teacher Policy Development Guide. The policy was validated in March 2018.

Identifying the needs

Madagascar is facing significant challenges in its recruitment of a qualified teacher force. Indeed, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the pupil to qualified teacher ratio in primary education in the country was 40 to 7 in 2016. Furthermore, the proportion of teachers who have received at least the minimum organized teacher training was 14.87% in 2016. It is estimated that 22 000 new teachers will need to be recruited by 2022.

Development process

The country started the review of its national education sector plan in 2014 and aimed at including a teacher policy component. While developing its new education sector plan, the country created a thematic group dedicated to the conduct of a diagnostic study on the situation of teachers in the country, using the UNESCO Methodological Guide for the Analysis of Teacher Issues. This group, under the supervision of the ministries in charge of education, included various stakeholders: economists, demographists, ministries representatives, teacher unions’ representatives, education NGOs representatives, Ministry of Finance representatives, parents’ associations’ representatives, sociologists and representatives of from the Ministry of Public Service.

Through a large consultation process, the diagnostic study highlighted amongst other things, the increasing demands for teachers, the low performance of students, the increasing number of teachers recruited with no professional training, the incapacity of teacher training institutions to train and the need for better teacher recruitment planning. Based on the diagnostic study results, the dedicated thematic group, involving the country’s three ministries of education, provided training on needs analyses, data collection and teacher policy development.

Following guidelines from the Teacher Policy Development Guide, the national teacher policy was developed with means of action that articulate how the nine different dimensions established in the Guide should be implemented by each of the Ministries involved.

What’s next?

Following its adoption by the Government and National Assembly, Madagascar will begin implementing its policy, starting with mobilizing resources and doing advocacy work to raise awareness on the teacher policy within the national education community.

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News
  • 22.02.2018

SABER Country reports: data collection for policy design

The Teacher Task Force and the World Bank are joining forces to see how data can benefit the development of teacher policies.

Using the Systems Approach for Better Education Results for Teachers (SABER-Teachers) tools and guidelines, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force) is collaborating with the World Bank to carry out a stocktaking review of the requirements of the teaching profession in 25 countries. The study covers the following regions of the world: Europe (France, Ireland, Slovenia, Norway, Turkey, Croatia), Arab States (Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Algeria), Sub-Saharan Africa (DR Congo, Mauritania, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana), Latin America and the Caribbean (Haiti, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil), Asia (India – Karnataka, Lao PDR, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand).

The review was guided by the following questions: what is the minimum level of academic qualification required to become a teacher? What are the main tasks performed by teachers? What system is put forward to guide salary packages, deployment and transfer of teachers? What criteria guides teacher performance evaluation? What solutions have countries put forward or envisaged? What does this review suggest as recommendations in order to improve the situation?

All data collection, related analysis and report preparations were completed by the Teacher Task Force with support from staff of the World Bank Group.

Data for better policies

The SABER-Teachers is an initiative from the World Bank to produce comparative data and knowledge on education policies and institutions, with the aim of helping countries systematically strengthen their education systems.

The main goal of teacher policies is to ensure that every classroom has a motivated, supported and competent teacher at its helm. However, evidence on the impact of teacher policies on the ground remain insufficient and scarce. Indeed, teacher policies’ impact can vastly differ based on the national context and the other education policies already in place.

SABER-Teachers helps governments strengthen their frameworks for effective teaching by identifying gaps in their teacher policies. To this end, SABER-Teachers analyses teacher policies formally adopted by a given education system. These studies aim to fill these gaps by disseminating comprehensive information on teacher policies based on data collected and analysed from various countries.

Country reports

The reports produced from this collaboration will focus specifically on policies in the area of teachers. To this end, the following eight teacher policy goals have been set up for evaluation:

  • Setting Clear Expectations for Teachers
  • Attracting the Best into Teaching
  • Preparing Teachers with Useful Training and Experience
  • Matching Teachers’ Skills with Students’ Needs
  • Leading Teachers with Strong Principals
  • Monitoring Teaching and Learning
  • Supporting Teachers to Improve Instruction
  • Motivating Teachers to Perform

To identify these goals, three criteria were applied. Each goal had to be linked to student performance through empirical evidence. They had to be a priority for resource allocation, and they had to be actionable, meaning that they identified actions that governments could take to strengthen education policy.

The resulting reports describe the performance of each country’s Education system in achieving each of the eight teacher policy goals. They also contain comparative information from education systems that have consistently scored highly on international student achievement tests and those that have previously participated in the SABER-Teachers initiative.

The first reports from this collaboration to be published are from Singapore, Croatia and Norway. The upcoming reports to be published in 2018 are the following: Slovenia, France, Qatar, Namibia, Mexico, Brazil and the Philippines. 

Reports from this collection are available in our library. More reports are available on the SABER website.

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News
  • 17.11.2017

“Teach your passion” says UNESCO-Japan ESD prizewinner

In Zimbabwe, a teacher’s passion became a sustainable way of life for a community.

Headteacher Sibanga Ncube took at heart a Zimbabwean saying when he decided to teach permaculture to his students.

During Mr Ncube pre-service teaching education there was no training in Education for Sustainable Development. However, while pursuing his own interests, he discovered a passion for permaculture. After undertaking small projects, he was invited to attend a training by the Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme (SCOPE) of Zimbabwe and decided to implement what he had learned in his school.

“Don’t just grow old, plant a tree”

In Mr Ncube’s school, Silhengeni Primary School, agriculture is a learning subject so he decided to incorporate the four principles of permaculture he had learned about in the school curriculum and syllabus. To do so, he introduced permaculture through a tree planting activity. This was a way to familiarize the students with the concept of permaculture, while benefiting the school with an improved learning environment. Indeed, planting trees helped with providing students and teachers with shaded areas, as well as with regulating the temperature in classrooms.He also regularly meets with parents to show them the progress made by their children and to explain the benefits of this programme for the community at large. He indicated that highlighting the school successes was a way to get the community more involved in the implementation of the project.

Gaining life skills

This project taught children life skills that they will carry through their adult lives. They developed their sense of responsibility and discipline; they also learn the importance of teamwork. It also influences their behavior as they learn the spirit of sharing and the value of respect for nature.

Mr Ncube teaches students from age 5 to 14 through a hands-on-learning method, which means that he explains the importance of tree planting to students while showing them how to plant trees. Each child chooses a tree to plant and is responsible for caring for it, i.e. watering, weeding, etc... “It gives them a sense of responsibility and ownership of the project,” said Mr Ncube.

Advice to other teachers

When asked what he would tell other teachers interested in implementing the same type of project in their schools, Headteacher Ncube said that there were three simple things to keep in mind.

First, teachers need to be interested in what they are teaching. “If a teacher is passionate about a project, he will be able to interest children,” he explained.

He then emphasized the need for participatory and hands-on teaching, describing it as the best method to implement this kind of project. “Avoid being a manager, be a participant”, he stated.

The third advice Mr Ncube would give teachers eager to undertake this kind of project with their students is that whichever project you choose to undertake with students it should also need to benefit the entire community.

Future steps

Headteacher Sibanga Ncube was awarded the 2017 UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development on behalf of the Silhengeni Primary School for its permaculture project. The school will be exploring several ways to improve the projects such as expanding the school garden to become a commercial garden and orchards; improving the nature park to be run by the students and the community; expanding the reservoirs for the school’s water collection.

He also wishes to export the project to other schools. Mr Ncube plans to continue to train teachers in surrounding schools. Indeed, understanding the needs of a community is a key feature of this project as it allows teachers to better contextualize and adapt it to the students.

Mr Ncube also hopes to create school manuals and books to teach students permaculture.

The UNESCO – Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development recognizes the role of education in connecting the social, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. It is funded by the Government of Japan and consists of three annual awards of USD 50,000 for each recipient.

Links

UNESCO – Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development

Education for Sustainable Development

UNESCO and Teachers

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Blog
  • 06.10.2017

“People in this community view my job as a waste of time”

Isabella Kituyi, 39, is a teacher at Kimwanga Special School for the Hearing impaired. Before receiving training as part of VSO’s Community Empowerment for Deaf Inclusion (CEDI), she had scraped by for years without any training in sign language or in meeting the different needs of children with disabilities.

Isabella explains how the training is improving her teaching, as well as challenging negative local attitudes towards children with hearing impairments. 

On my first day at Kimwanga Special School for the Hearing Impaired, I looked at the pupils and I questioned myself: Will I manage? And if I don’t, what will I do then? What if I lose my job? I had nothing in my head to prepare me for this work, no training or knowledge of Kenyan Sign Language (KSL).

But I was encouraged by the head teacher. She told me that the best teacher is these children themselves. By becoming comfortable with them, I would come to know some of the signs. I was interested and I was committed to teaching, so I kept on trying.

I used to use non-professional signing to get my message across even for basic things like wanting them to sit or eat. But after my training with VSO I am now able to use proper KSL to communicate with them.

It makes me happy whenever parents come to school to tell us that thanks to my teaching students are now able to better express themselves back at home. This is really motivating and gives me a reason to keep on with what I am doing.

Many people in the community view this job as a waste of time. They look at our young ones, think that we are giving out something that is not supposed to be given to them. They see these children as people who are already wasted. They are not valuable in the community. So they see us teachers as wasting our time here, doing nothing.

The negative perception that people have of these young ones deeply saddens me. I wish to see a time where they will see them as normal human beings who only have a different way of communicating their thoughts.

That is why I have taken a personal responsibility to educate the community around me about them – it is my hope that someday they will be appreciated and not discriminated against. As for me, I am not giving up on them no matter what people’s thoughts are- they are my main motivation.

Thanks to training, I am courageous and now even in church I talk to people and show them the benefit of us loving these pupils – or anyone – who is hearing impaired. So in the communities where I come from, they now know that a person with an impairment is just a normal person like them.

That has encouraged some of the parents who were hiding their hearing deaf children at home. Now they look for me wherever I am. VSO gave us a book for KSL communication – I invite these parents and show them the book. Two of my neighbours are deaf, I am also teaching them KSL.

We have got so many challenges in our school –uncountable. Our pupils come from far, so you may come to school and meet only one child, or none, because of the distance. These children come from poor families. They need support from us, even food. Sometimes they tell you, ‘Miss, yesterday I slept without eating, so I cannot concentrate.’

It forces us teachers to dip into our own pockets, to be able to provide some food for them so that they can be motivated and have energy to learn. It is hard on my salary – I am not comfortable. Sometimes I cannot afford transport to school so I walk for one hour to reach here from my place.

I get to school at 7.30am. I do cleanliness and health check-ups with those pupils who have already arrived. Some children come from homes without water, so I wash their faces.

We have only two classrooms. In my class are four streams together at once, class zero to four. There are effectively four lessons going on at once: we just have to divide the blackboard into four. So teaching becomes a problem – it is very hard for the pupils to concentrate.

In the school, all our children have hearing impairments. I also have three hearing children with learning disabilities, and one girl with intellectual impairment. This makes teaching difficult because those with additional disabilities may refuse to participate.

Handling these children is the hardest thing about the job. You want to attend to them, but you cannot always understand them. You want to ask a question, instead you get a slap. That is very difficult. But since training, I feel empathy because these children are just the same as normal children, but because of the impairment it may affect their actions. I sympathise with them.

People from outside should try and have a positive attitude towards our children who are hearing impaired – or towards anyone who has a disability.  If they have that positive attitude they will keep on assisting them, knowing that they are just normal beings like others.

Despite the challenges, I still say being a teacher is the best. I can interact with anyone, anywhere, and in whichever situation, because I have handled these young ones.

This story in published in partnership with VSO International for #WorldTeachersDay. It was originally published on VSO International's website. 

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Blog
  • 06.10.2017

"I keep going because I have a passion for teaching”

Josephine Nyirampuha, 28, is an early grade teacher in Nibori village, in Nyamasheke district, Rwanda. Her classroom is a wooden hut with a mud floor and no furniture, in which she tries to equip 58 local children with quality early childhood education (ECE). She receives no government salary, surviving on school fees paid by those parents who can afford to in this, one of the poorest districts in the country.

Rwanda has prioritised upgrading the quality of ECE in hopes of reducing rates of repetition at primary school. Currently only around one in five children receives pre-primary schooling. A new ECE teacher training curriculum, developed with the support of VSO is being embedded with the help of VSO volunteers on the EQUECER-II project. Volunteers work in teacher training colleges as well as with in-service teachers like Josephine, many of whom had never had any professional training in early childhood development beforehand.

Before I was a teacher, children in this community could not go to school because schools are very far located. I had graduated from Urugero [Rwanda’s national voluntary service] after secondary school. This room had been built by local parents who asked me to help them teach their children. That was three years ago.

Where I am teaching, there are only children from very poor families. Those are well to do take their children to better schools. Most families do not even send their children to pre-primary school as they can’t afford to provide school food and fees.

The number of children in my class has steadily increased. Today it is 58.

It is very difficult. Every parent should pay 500RWF per month. But when it is the end of the month, it is very possible that only one parent has brought this money.

Each month I earn 12,000RWF [£12] at most. When I get a little money I can buy sugar or soap. I can’t say it is enough because I don’t have enough money to buy shoes. I am always patient and hopeful that things will change.

I keep going because I have passion for teaching. This is a noble position and I like it. Sometimes you ask yourself why the government doesn’t support us more. Even some parents seem not to give it much value.

But some parents do come to thank me. Those are the ones that have noticed the difference between the performance of their children that I have taught, and those who have not got this basic education.

VSO volunteers showed me how to create locally made teaching and learning materials. Before this training I had to ask the head teacher to borrow books. Sometimes I would only have one book for the whole class so I would draw pictures.

Now we know how to teach with these local materials and to make learning corners. I like thinking of things I can make for the children using these discarded materials. Some bottle tops can be a counting game. A rice sack can become the costume for a moto driver. The button helps develop fine motor skills, and the role play helps with socialising and introducing concepts of counting and money.

Before starting class, I have to motivate the children using a song. I make them my best friends so that they can respect my instructions.

My teaching has improved because now students are learning by doing, which makes them better understand the lesson. The children are very active and involved. They study reading, mathematics and social studies.

I use songs to motivate them, and make them my best friends so that they can respect my instructions. We have a great team spirit. The change in my students’ performance is super, so I feel good.

This story is published in partnership with VSO International for #WorldTeachersDay. It was originally published on VSO International's website.

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Blog
  • 05.10.2017

“I love teaching – but it is so difficult”

Grace Chigwechokha, 41, is a dedicated Standard 2 teacher at Chiuzimbi Primary School in Lilongwe, Malawi. She loves teaching – but struggles with the impossible task of educating a class of 84 children ranging in age from six to 14 years old.  She is frustrated by the challenge of trying to deliver quality education in a context of huge class sizes, scant resources and rampant absenteeism.

Grace explains what it’s really like to work as a teacher in Malawi, and her experiences since becoming involved in VSO’s Unlocking Talent project. She is responsible for the running of a solar-powered learning centre, equipped with special digital education software, provided as part of the scheme.

When I was at school my favourite teacher was Mrs Mmangeni. I remember it was easy to learn with her and that she wore very beautiful clothes. She was like a role model for me. Now that is what I try to be for my learners.

I love teaching. I do this work because I want to build up Malawian children to be all they can be, but it’s difficult because I have so many learners in the class. Last term I had 84 in standard 2, ranging in age from six to 14 years old.

Sometimes as you are trying to teach some children are beating each other, others are standing, or moving around.  It’s a tough job. The children all have different abilities. Being the only teacher in the class is a very big problem, because I can’t give every child individual help.

I am trying my best. For example, I have one boy in the class with hearing difficulties. I try to keep him at the front of the class so he has a better chance of hearing and seeing everything. But I know that not every child is receiving the best education – I don’t feel good about that. I want my learners to do well.

Many children repeat class because they do not do well in exams. To progress to the next grade, they have to get at least 50% of the marks on an exam. Last time only 49 out of 84 got enough questions right to continue. The rest are back in my class again this year.

There is also the problem of absenteeism in the school. Some parents keep their older children at home when they go away on business, asking them to stay behind to take care of their sisters and brothers. Teachers too are sometimes missing. When teachers are sick or absent, there is no one to take over their class while they are away.

That’s why I’m so happy about being part of Unlocking Talent. I can see my learners are able to read and write, and the absenteeism has also been reduced – they don’t want to miss the classes. Even those with troublesome behaviour have changed.

As Unlocking Talent co-ordinator it’s my responsibility to look after the maintenance of the learning centres [purpose-built rooms equipped with tablet computers with special digital education software]. I make sure they are kept clean and tidy, that the children use it correctly and that the materials are well looked after.

It is good to learn from VSO volunteers. To be a teacher I had two years of training. One year in a teacher training college and a year of theory – that was in 1994 and I haven’t had training since. Though I have been teaching for more than 20 years I am still on the first grade of being a teacher. The salary for my grade is 79,000 Kwacha (£81) per month. It is not a lot of money – living in Lilongwe is expensive. It can cost 50,000 kwacha to rent a house.

Of course I would like to be promoted to the next grade and earn more. Since 2015 I am the head of the theology department. That should qualify me for the next grade, but I would need to complete my education to degree-level first. The fees for that are 350,000 Kwacha (£364).

I am married and have three children of my own, aged 21, 17 and 14. My youngest is now in Senior Form 2. I am sending him to a private school. I want my children to have the best. School fees are 90,000 Kwacha (£93) per term, the uniform is another 40,000 (£41), and there are registration fees. So you see my salary does not go very far. As I am trying to do what’s best for my children, I decided it is better to fund their education and stop mine.

My first born is now a journalist. She has completed a diploma and is doing a work placement with a multimedia organisation. She has not yet completed a degree – again fees are a challenge. I am proud of her.

I love the children in my class. It is my role to talk to them, to encourage them to work extra hard so they can become better people. I’m proud of that.

I encourage each and every person to become a teacher, or to support us in our work. This is a good job. We build up children to be important people so they can go work in companies, organisations and government. It is a big role.

This story in published in partnership with VSO International. This story was originally published on VSO International's website. 

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